RWBY: The Chrome Chronicles
by FluxInTime
Summary: The Chrome Chronicles are an unofficial series of collated inputs from various participants in the recent Grimm War of Remnant. This is the telling of the most horrific war we have faced as a people to date, following from the perspectives of the huntsmen and huntresses in training who were at the forefront of the war, such as teams RWBY, JNPR and CHRM. (Rating may change)
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Beacon

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the characters involved in the show. They belong to RoosterTeeth, as well as our dearly beloved Monty Oum (May he forever remain in our hearts).**

* * *

\- Chapter One -

\- Welcome to Beacon -

The mid-day winds up above the city of Vale rustled Charlie's hair, causing its already tousled shape to become even more unruly as he stood at the rear balcony railing of the airship taking him and dozens of other students to Beacon Academy to start the New Year. He watched as the landscape of the kingdom passed by below him, buildings, parks and courtyards filling the city for miles around. At the edge of the city borders, he could see the shimmering red sea of the trees in Forever Fall to the North, and to the South the green trees of the Emerald Forest.

A few people below saw the airships passing overhead, most of them ignoring them, those that didn't sparing enough time to stop and wave up at the airships. From this high up, Charlie couldn't tell who they were, although he was nearly certain that they would be children, waving to the future protectors of the world.

Although children would have a certain level of innocence to them, everyone knew of the Huntsmen and Huntresses who protected the various people of Remnant from the creatures of Grimm. They would pretend to be heroes during their breaks at school, battling imaginary foes, protecting the people and saving the day.

On his way to the airport, Charlie had happened across a young child and his mother, the pair of them heading to take him to school. The boy had stopped in awe, excitedly pointing out Charlie to his mother, bouncing up and down on the spot. Charlie had spent a few moments to speak with the small child, who was determined to go to Signal Academy once he was old enough, and eventually apply to Beacon to become a Huntsman, being the hero he had always wanted to be.

Charlie had smiled politely, and supported the young boy's dreams, assuring him that if he stuck to it, he could become one of the greatest Huntsmen ever to live. After that, he had excused himself from the pair, continuing on his path towards the airport, able to hear the excited ramblings of the child behind him as he continued on his way to school.

Charlie couldn't help but smile as he remembered the adorable moment. Unfortunately, his moment of peace watching the landscape pass by as the airship flew through the air was quickly ruined however as his sister jumped onto his back, jamming his chest against the railing before him.

'Ow! Dammit Robyn!' Charlie shouted, shoving his sister off of his shoulders and rubbing his ribs where the iron bar had impacted.

'Oh, don't be such a wimp Charlie,' his sister replied with a smirk, giving him a gentle shove on the shoulder, having to stand on her toes to do so, her short form only reaching the centre of his chest. 'It's probably not a good idea to start crying over nothing on your first day at school.'

'Shut up,' Charlie snarled at her, pushing her away with a palm to her face. Robyn attempted to fight him, but was unable to match his strength as he walked back inside the airship. He rolled his eyes as he heard her strutting inside behind him.

His sister was also attending Beacon with him. While he had decided to leave the hotel room the two of them had booked for the night just for a place to stay before heading for Beacon, his sister had been determined to spend another hour in the room, getting ready for the day to 'make a good first impression' on the other students they would be meeting.

She had turned up a few seconds before the airship took off, smiling the whole way, and even sticking out her tongue at her brother, and punching him on the arm as he commented on her tardiness.

'At least you took Father's advice in dressing at least a little professionally,' Charlie taunted, glancing towards his sister's attire, which was a mixture between a more formal set of clothing, like his own, and an informal set of clothing.

Like himself, she wore a buttoned collar shirt with a long tie reaching to the waist. Whilst his shirt was a dark red and his tie a light black, hers was a baby blue and her tie a pale white. A short white business vest sat atop her collared shirt, and a blue half-overcoat lay above that. In comparison, Charlie wore a full double-breasted coat, a dark black on the outside, and a deep red on the inside. She wore white pants, half covered by knee knee-high boots of a pearly white colour, whilst he wore a pair of deep black pants, with ankle high combat boots.

Slung across her back was a large, mechanical war bow, accompanied by a thick quiver filled to the brim with arrows. The bow was a bright white in colour, with a few streaks of blue across its surface. The material of the quiver was a slightly darker blue than that of her jacket, which caused it to blend quite nicely with her clothing.

Charlie's own weapons, a pair of short black daggers were resting in their sheaths, located across his belt at the small of his back. A light red glow was emanating through sections of the weapons, indicating a pair of red dust crystals were currently inserted in the handles of the blades.

To finish off their opposing looks, whilst Charlie's hair was short, tousled and an ash-black in colour, Robyn's was long, straight and a bright blue colour. Their eyes were also opposing each other, his eyes being a dark, smouldering red and hers a bright blue.

To most people, the two would appear to be nothing more than friends, complete opposites of each other in appearance. Certainly not twin brother and sister. However, the closer of a look taken, you could notice subtle similarities between the two.

'Haha, very funny,' Robyn replied, poking her tongue out at him, raising her fist again threateningly, although it only resulted in a small chuckle from her brother. The pair dodged past another student who was stumbling around, hand clasped over his mouth, obviously looking for somewhere to throw up.

'We should only be a few more minutes away from Beacon now,' Charlie said, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked. 'Please don't make us look like idiots when we all get off the airships.'

'Pfft, why are you saying that to me? It's you who's going to make us look bad brother,' Robyn said jokingly, giving him another punch in the arm, which Charlie narrowed his eyes at.

Ever since he could remember, his sister had always liked to punch him. Granted, she always hit him very lightly, and at this point it was almost a ritualistic social aspect of their lives. Of course, if he had wanted he could easily avoid her attacks, he just never saw the point in it.

'Ew, Yang! You've got puke on your shoe!'

'Gross gross gross gross gross gross gross!'

'Get away from me! Get away from me!'

Robyn heard the small commotion behind her, and with no time to react, watched as her brother deftly stepped out of the way, before a small girl in red and black stumbled into her from behind, knocking the pair of them to the ground.

The girl looked much younger than the rest of the new students Charlie had seen on the airship. Her face had a youthful look to it, and her silver eyes were full of innocence as they widened in panic as she realised she had just knocked somebody over.

'Ooof! Sorry!' the small girl said, quickly jumping off of Robyn and helping her to her feet.

The young girl was wearing a black corset, complete with red lace up strings across her abdomen, and a frilly red under layer beneath the black material of her corsets combat skirt and protruding from her sleeves. A belt sat across her hips, a pouch and silver rose on the right and singular bullet shells on the left. Black stockings covered her legs, and a pair of ankle high, laced up combat boots. And to complete her look, a red hooded cloak hung from her shoulders, pinned on by a pair of silver crosses at each shoulder. A red device was hidden beneath her cloak, strapped to the back of her dress with some form of mechanical sheath.

'Don't worry, it's alright!' Robyn said, patting the girl on the shoulder as she got to her feet. 'No harm no foul, right?'

'Besides, I give you permission to do that again,' Charlie joked, patting his sister on the shoulder, who quickly threw off his hand and raised a fist threateningly towards him. Although he was already so much taller than her, which made it hard to judge heights, the red-haired girl seemed to be taller than his sister. Just more ammunition to tease her with.

'Sounds like you two have an interesting relationship with each other then,' another girl smiled, whom Charlie guessed to be Yang, still shaking her boot to get the last flecks of puke off.

Yang wore a short, brown leather jacket, exposing both her cleavage and midriff. In fact, the only thing hiding her cleavage was what appeared to be a bright yellow tube top beneath the jacket. An orange scarf sat around her neck, both ends hiding behind her waist-length, untamed blonde hair. A set of lilac eyes gazing at the twins. Bright yellow bracelets sat atop her wrists, above a pair of black fingerless gloves on each hand.

A pair of black minishorts lay beneath a leather miniskirt, exposed at the front, but wrapping completely around her backside. A white cloth was draped around the inside of the skirt, shorter on the left side, extending to be longer on the right. A pair of tall leather boots covered the lower half of her legs, orange socks protruding from each boot, each extended to a different length, the left reaching above her knee, and the other crumpled to be below the knee. A dark lilac sash was tied around the top of her left boot, just below the knee.

'Yeah, just the usual love-hate sibling relationship,' Charlie answered.

'Oh, my bad,' Yang said, a sheepish look on her face now. 'I didn't think you two were related. You kinda don't look anything alike.'

'And you two do?' Charlie asked, raising an eyebrow. 'You don't look like each other, but you're still sisters.'

'How did you know that?' the younger girl asked.

'Good intuition,' Charlie replied. 'Also because of the way you were both talking to each other.'

'Right,' Yang said. 'Well, it's nice to meet you both. I'm Yang, and this is my little sister Ruby!'

Ruby gave the two a small wave, accompanied with a small, but nervous smile.

'It's nice to meet you too,' Robyn replied. 'I'm Robyn, and this is my brother Charles, but everyone just calls him Charlie.'

Yang's eyes flitted between the two of them. 'So, is one of you adopted, or do you have a different parent?'

'Neither,' Robyn answered with a smirk. 'We're twins.'

At that response, both Ruby and Yang leant backwards slightly, eyebrows raised as they looked the pair up and down, disbelief evident in their eyes.

'We get that response quite a lot,' Robyn said.

'I guess we shouldn't really react like that,' Yang answered. 'You already said yourself that we don't look all that much alike.'

'So, which schools did you come from?' Ruby interrupted. 'I haven't seen you before, so you aren't from Signal. Sanctum maybe?'

At this, both Charlie and Robyn's smiles lowered slightly, looked between each other before turning back to the sisters. 'We aren't actually from any of the combat schools around Remnant. We were home schooled ever since we took an interest in Huntsmen and Huntresses.'

'Home schooled? You guys must come from a pretty rich family then,' Yang replied, with a sudden new interest in the pair and a grin on her face, giving Charlie another look up and down, causing him to chuckle internally.

'You could say that,' Charlie replied. 'I'm sure you've heard of Arduin Technologies?'

At that, both sister's eyebrows raised. The twins took that response as a yes.

Arduin Technologies had been founded very early in the history of Remnant, initially creating weaponry for armies before expanding out to create new technologies to aid people in their everyday lives. The Cross-Continental Transit System was co-created by Arduin Technologies and a few other corporations in Atlas, and one of their greatest creations during their time. Many forms of transportations were created by the company, and between these and other various creations, Arduin Technologies had become the most well-known companies across all of Remnant. Nearly a century ago, they had also entered the Dust business, mining, creating, combining and experimenting on the substance. Although the company was reasonably new to the Dust business, they were one of the top-rated companies throughout Remnant, rivalled by only military based companies, as well as the Schnee Dust Company.

'No way,' Ruby whispered in awe.

'Yeah, but please don't make a big deal about it,' Robyn begged. 'It's really not that easy to make friends when you're in our positions. People either don't want to because they don't feel like they are good enough to be around us, or they just want to try and manipulate our friendships for their own personal gains.'

'You got it!' Yang said with a salute and a slight wink, causing Ruby to cover her face with her palm.

A few moments afterwards, the airship slowed down, and came in for a landing to Beacon's docks along with the various other airships which had been flying in from other sections of Vale. The four made their way out of the exit to the airship, making sure to give a slight berth around the poor blonde who was heaving his breakfast into a nearby bin.

Whilst all of the students making their ways off of the airship were all standing in awe of the sheer size of Beacon, Robyn and Charlie were the least dumbfounded out of everyone, having seen their fair share of large houses, academies and various other buildings. However, even with all of their previous experiences, Beacon was still a beautiful sight to behold.

A long path surrounded by trees and wide open grass stretched from the docks towards the tall buildings of the academy. Various pathways led off from the main stretch the closer to Beacon they walked, each of them leading in various directions, each leading to a different section of the campus grounds. Probably not the fastest route, but maybe the most scenic.

'This is amazing!' Ruby exclaimed, jumping on the balls of her feet as she walked alongside her sister and the Arduin twins. 'I've only ever seen Beacon from afar! It looks even better up close!'

Charlie leant towards Yang, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. 'Is it just me, or does your sister seem a little bit younger than the rest of us?'

Yang sighed. 'Yeah, she got into a little situation in downtown Vale a few days ago, and somehow managed to get accepted into Beacon because of it.'

'That seems a little suspicious,' Charlie pointed out.

'Yeah, it kinda is. But I'm happy for her,' Yang replied, smiling as she watched her sister gawp at the various weapons being carried by other students. 'She's wanted this for such a long time, it's great to see that her dream is coming true.'

Robyn smiled at Yang's reply, and was about to say something else to her before Charlie's voice rang out across the walkway. 'Ruby, watch out!'

There was a huge cacophony of noise as Ruby spun around, right into a large baggage cart, loaded to the top with various white cases, sending the boxes flying. The two bellhops, let out a quick sigh before stopping the trolley and moving to pick the cases up.

'You couldn't have said that a little sooner?' Robyn hissed at Charlie as they ran towards Ruby to help her up.

Charlie ignored his sister's remark, lifting the small girl to her feet before bending down to help pick up the cases. As he did so, he noticed the symbol emblazoned across the lid of the case.

'You've got to be kidding me,' he whispered under his breath, just before a shrill voice cut through the air.

'What are you doing?!'

Charlie sighed, handing the case to one of the bellhops before standing up and turning to face the source of the voice.

As he had guessed, it was Weiss Schnee, the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Unlike many of the other times Charlie and his sister had seen Weiss, she wasn't in one of the fancy dresses of the likes she would wear to the formal occasions where they would always see her, but in a more combat oriented attire.

A white dress hung from her chest, ending halfway down her thighs in a frilly, patterned skirt. Black lace poked out from the top of her dress in the centre of her chest. A white ribbon was tied around her waist, holding her rapier at her left hip, and a small white pouch at the back. A white bolero jacket with the Schnee family symbol on the back sat atop her dress, sleeves ending in a wide brim, and a bright red interior standing out from the rest of her outfit. White heeled boots gave her extra height, enough to match, if not be slightly taller than the already incredibly short Ruby and Robyn.

Her hair had grown in length since they had last met. Her white hair was tied into a ponytail on the right side of her head, the rest of the locks draping down to her waist. A small black tiara sat in her hair, the only other piece of jewellery she wore was a small black penchant around her neck. Ice blue eyes pierced into Ruby's face with anger.

It had been a long time since he had last seen the heiress, but he roughly estimated that if she were to remove her boots, she would still be shorter than his smaller sister, or the poor Ruby who was poking the two ends of her index fingers together nervously.

'Uh, I'm sorry! Please don't me too mad!' Ruby quickly babbled. 'I didn't see the cart behind me and I tripped into it. I'm sorry!'

'Sorry?' the Schnee Heiress asked with a sneer. 'Sorry won't take back any damage you've just done!'

She walked towards the luggage trolley, lifting one of the cases and opening it to inspect the contents. Seeming satisfied, she closed it, placing it down on the pile of other cases and turned back to the small group, noticing Charlie standing beside the cart as she did.

As soon as her eyes stopped on him, there was a moment's hesitation, before they narrowed even more than they already had. 'You.'

Both the Arduin and Schnee companies were rivals in business. Unfortunately, this also extended into personal matters, and so their families had never managed to get on. Charlie and his sister had met Weiss Schnee a few times throughout their lives, mostly at social gatherings they had been taken to with their parents. The two families mostly ignored each other, only acknowledging the other when circumstances forced them.

Unfortunately, the few times they had met the heiress, any words that had passed between them had been condescending, or offensive. Charlie had never partaken in the poor behaviour, however his sister was more than glad to verbally abuse the heiress.

Charlie let out a sigh. 'Yes, me.'

'Why am I not surprised to find you where some form of catastrophe has occurred?' she snarled at him.

'Hey!' Yang interjected, getting between the two. 'He didn't even have anything to do with this! Don't pull him into it, he was trying to help out!'

'Oh really?' Weiss replied, turning to face Yang. 'I don't remember asking you for your opinion.'

'Funnily enough, she doesn't need to wait for you to ask when it's her sister you're insulting,' Robyn retorted, causing Weiss' eyes to fix to her.

'Of course you would be here too,' Weiss hissed at her. 'Where one of the Arduin twins goes, the other is always close behind. You're both like a pair of lost puppies, always right beside the other.'

'Please can we all just stop arguing with each other and keep moving on?' Ruby begged, eager to get away from the conflict between them all.

'Wouldn't you just love that?' Weiss snapped. 'Make a mess of my belongings and just move on.'

'Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!' Ruby yelled back.

'Actually, it's heiress,' a new voice said, causing the group to turn and look at the newcomer.

A girl with black hair and a well tied black bow atop her head had approached the group, one of the Schnee cases in hand. She held the case out for one of the bellhops to take, who did so very graciously, placing the final missing case on the top of the pile, before the pair began their journey towards the Academy once more.

The girl wore a white blouse, slightly covered by a black vest, buttoned up at the midriff, showing a little bit of stomach between the vest and a pair of white shorts. From them down was a pair of black tights which faded to a deep purple as they reach her black, ankle-high boots. Black ribbons wrapped around her wrists, and a black sleeve ran from just above her wrist to just below her shoulder on her left arm, a silver band sitting at the top. A sheathed sword sat across her back, another ribbon trailing from the hilt. Golden eyes danced across all of their faces, taking in as much information as they could.

'Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world,' the girl continued.

'Finally! Some recognition!' Weiss said smugly.

'We already know you,' Charlie replied, getting nothing but a small noise as a response as the raven-haired girl continued.

'Personally, I prefer the ethics of Arduin Technologies,' she said knowingly, looking towards Charlie and Robyn. 'They have a much better labour force and certainly have business partners with better reputations than those of the Schnee Dust Company.'

At this, Weiss' look of smugness changed to one of anger. 'How dare you!'

Ruby giggled, trying to be silent, but attracting Weiss' attention once again. The heiress looked as if she were about to say something, but instead turned her head and walked off, leaving them all standing in the middle of the pathway, people walking around them.

'Well, that could have gone better,' Yang said, looking between the members of the circle. The raven-haired girl barely acknowledged her comment before turning and walking off, pulling out a book from under her arm which the rest of them hadn't noticed until now, tilting her head down to read as she did so to continue her reading.

'Not really,' Robyn said, shaking her head. 'She's a bit of a grouch.'

'Ditto,' Charlie agreed. 'That was the best scenario we could have gotten.'

'That was the best possible scenario?' Ruby asked, to which Charlie simply nodded and continued to walk along the path, the rest of the group following him. At least until Ruby went to check her scroll, realising that it wasn't there.

'Uh oh,' Ruby started panicking, frantically patting down her pockets. 'I think I left my scroll on the airship! I'll be right back!'

And with a shower of rose petals, the young girl dashed off, heading back down the pathway towards the docks, the stream of rose petals dodging and weaving through the other students still making their way towards the school.

'Should we wait for her?' Robyn asked Yang.

'Nah, she'll know where we went,' Yang replied, continuing to walk forwards.

* * *

It hadn't taken them much longer to make their way towards the large amphitheatre in the centre of the campus, however the time they spent waiting for Ruby near the entrance was starting to stack up. Just when they were about to head back out to look for her, Charlie caught a glimpse of the girl, her red cape sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the crowd.

'Ruby! Over here, we saved you a spot!' Yang shouted and waved across the noise in the hall, having seen her little sister as well.

Ruby waved back, making her way towards the rest of the group with a very familiar looking individual.

'Is that...?' Robyn started to ask.

'Yep,' Charlie responded before she could finish her sentence. The pair of them took a step back from the group to allow the blonde-haired boy into the group.

A black shirt with a hood on the back lay beneath a set of basic, white combat armour, strapped on with various leather straps. Brown fingerless gloves covered pairs of oranges sleeves reaching up to just above his elbow. Two belts hung from his waist, one holding up his pair of well-worn jeans, the other holding a sword inside a white sheath on his left hip and a pair of black converse covered the bottoms of his jeans. A mop of straggly blonde hair sat atop his head, and a pair of deep blue eyes looked out from underneath a few strands that were straying from the others.

'Aren't you the guy that threw up?' Yang asked.

The guy sighed. 'Yeah, that's me.'

'Yeah, but it's okay Yang,' Ruby interjected, cutting off her sister's reply. 'It turns out he has motion sickness and couldn't help himself before.'

The fire in Yang's eyes died slightly. 'Alright then. So, what's your name?'

The group spent another few minutes introducing each other to Jaune. Once they had finished, the sound of a microphone being turned on got the attention of everybody in the room. Everybody turned to face the source of the sound.

On the stage before all of them stood the academy's headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Charlie and his sister had heard various things about Professor Ozpin from their parents after their decision to apply to Beacon Academy. There wasn't much their parents could tell, other than the high regard they had for Ozpin.

'I'll try to keep this brief for you all,' he began, stepping closer to the microphone. 'Firstly, I would like to congratulate you all for making it this far already. Being accepted into this academy is one of the highest achievements possible for people of your age.'

'However, when I look around all of you here today, all I see inside you are dreams, hopes, and wasted energy. You have built up ideas of what it is you will be doing at this academy throughout your time here, however you must realise that this establishment has the purpose to make you the line of defence for all of the innocent people of this world against the many evils you can find throughout Remnant.'

'Tonight, you will all be gathering within the ballroom. You will stay there for tonight, and be assigned your own dormitories tomorrow evening. In the morning, you will be called to the cliffside, where your initiation will take place. Keep an ear out for the announcement, lest you be late.'

'Your personal belongings are being loaded off of the airship as we speak. They will be delivered to the ballroom for you. Please try to be sensible tonight, and have a good day students,' Ozpin concluded, moving away from the microphone, taking a sip from his cup of coffee as he did so.

As soon as he was done talking, the people in the hall burst out into conversation once more.

'Well, that was really cheery,' Yang commented.

'It was still better than the shouting session Weiss gave me,' Ruby joked.

'You!' screamed the voice of Weiss Schnee from directly behind Ruby.

The sudden shout was enough to scare Ruby into her sister's arms, screaming, 'Oh no, it's happening again!'

* * *

The next few hours went by in a blur, and before the group knew it, the sun had set behind the horizon, and the shattered moon was glowing brightly in the sky. The ballroom was now packed full of all the new students who were camping out for the night. Sleeping bags and mattresses had been provided for everyone, as well as pillows, even if people had brought their own.

Jaune and the Arduin twins had decided to stay with the two sisters, rolling out their sleeping bags on the closest mattresses to the pair. Robyn had already climbed inside, ready to fall asleep at a moment's notice. Charlie on the other hand was across the room, making small talk to some of the other students. Robyn had small laugh as she noticed Charlie accidentally start talking to a red headed girl, who had far too much energy for her own good, and was subtly trying to escape the conversation, but to no avail.

At that moment, Yang appeared from nowhere, landing on her mattress, talking to her younger sister, who was concentrating on writing a letter.

'It's like a big slumber party! Isn't this great Ruby?!' Yang asked her sister, arms folded behind her head.

'Yeah,' Ruby replied absentmindedly. 'I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though.'

'Maybe not, but I sure do,' Yang answered, letting out a small purring noise as she surveyed all of the various boys in the room. Even in her half-asleep state, Robyn noticed the blonde girl's eyes linger on her brother's form for slightly longer than the other students, causing her to sigh and shake her head slightly, but with a slight hint of jealousy. It had only been a few hours and already he was attracting the eyes of many of the girls in the room.

'What are you doing?' Yang asked her younger sister.

'Writing a letter to the rest of the gang at Signal,' Ruby replied. 'Just letting them know how the first day went.'

'Awww, that's so cute!' Yang said, before a pillow went flying towards her head, knocking her backwards on her bed.

'Shut up!' Ruby said grumpily. 'I didn't get to take any of my friends with me to school like you did! It's weird not knowing anybody here.'

Robyn had to agree with Ruby. Although she wasn't younger than any of the other students by two years, she had only come to Beacon with her brother. The both of them had been home-schooled their entire lives, and Charlie was her only real friend.

'I understand what you're saying Ruby,' she said, sitting up slightly on her bed. 'Charlie and I don't know anybody else here other than you two really. Although you may have left your previous friends behind, at least you'll make some new friends here.'

'And a negative friend too,' Ruby grumbled, turning onto her back. 'I didn't really make a good first impression on Weiss.'

'There's no such thing as negative friends, just enemies!' Yang said, trying to cheer up her sister, only to get hit with another pillow from Ruby's collection.

'Listen, you haven't even been here that long yet Ruby. There are bound to be friends all around you, you just haven't met them yet.'

'Besides, you've already made three new friends,' Robyn input. 'My brother and I, as well as that Jaune boy.'

At this, Jaune who was walking towards his mattress, which was placed beside Charlie's, found his way into the conversation. 'Did I hear my name?'

'And there's that girl in the corner who sorta came to your rescue,' Yang said, pointing towards the raven-haired girl, who was sitting by herself, reading a book under the light of a candle.

The older sister stood up from her bed and grabbed Ruby's arm, 'Come on! Time to make another friend!'

Robyn let out a small laugh as she watched the younger girl struggle against her sister's strong grip. They moved too far away for her to hear any conversation, so she decided to close her eyes and attempt to fall asleep.

'So, are you two really twins?' Jaune asked from a few beds behind her.

She opened her eyes again, rolling on her side to face him. 'Yes, Jaune, we are.'

'But, you're both just so… different!'

'Yeah, we've been told that many times,' Robyn said. 'It is something that happens, it just isn't very common. Fraternal Twins, I think it's called.'

'So, what makes Fraternal Twins and not Identical Twins?' Jaune asked curiously, receiving a look of humour from Robyn.

'Are you really sure you want to be having this sort of conversation right now Jaune?' she asked him, making him blush ever so slightly. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, the sound of arguing reached their ears. From the sounds of it, it was Weiss Schnee again, and possibly Yang?

'Do you uh, think we should go and break them up?' Jaune asked.

'No, Charlie will be there any moment now,' Robyn said, snuggling up to her pillow. 'He's good at appearing whenever there's some sort of argument that needs to be stopped.'

Within a few moments of her saying so, she could hear the sounds of the conflict dissipate quickly, and the calm voice of her brother as he stopped the fight.

A few moments later, she heard the rest of the gang return to their beds, and the five of them quickly fell asleep, although not easily due to the strangely loud snoring coming from the energetic girl across the hall.

* * *

 **Sooo, I kinda decided after a really, really, really, reallllyyyy, long time of reading different fanfics, '** ** _Hey, why don't I give this a try?_** **'. Enter me actually posting this (which is my first attempt at writing anything on here, EVER) so I was really nervous when the time came to post it. Who knows, maybe somebody will like it, or maybe nobody will. Either way, ever since I started thinking of this story I've constantly been developing it in my head, and I just needed to get it out of there. So if you made it this far, congrats! If not, you won't be reading this and won't see it anyway!**

 **Anyway, enough blabbing from me. If all has gone well, when this is initially uploaded there should be the next three chapters uploaded alongside it, just so I could determine whether people were interested or not (cause I've kinda noticed people tend to ignore stories when they have less chapters to them, probably because they don't want to wait for more chapters to get uploaded).**

 **But I'm still blabbing, so I'll just stop typing now. Any minute now...**

 **Any minute...**

 **Okay, sorry, bye**


	2. Chapter 2: The Initiation

**To those of you reading this...**

 **Thanks for coming to the second chapter! :D Love you all for giving me a chance!**

* * *

\- Chapter Two -

\- The Initiation -

Charlie woke up the next morning in shock due to his sister holding his nose closed. It took him a moment to realise what was happening, and once he saw Robyn smirking down at him along with Yang and Ruby, he pushed his sister off of him with a quick shove.

'Very funny,' he grumbled, rising from the bed to his feet and sidestepping a counter-blow from his sister. 'What time is it?'

'About 6.30 I think,' Robyn replied. 'There was an announcement a few minutes ago to wake us all up. Seeing as your deaf ass didn't wake up, I thought I'd take it upon myself to get you out of bed.'

'Thanks, I really appreciate your concern,' Charlie said with a hint of sarcasm.

'Don't mind him,' Robyn whispered to the sisters. 'He's really cranky in the morning.'

Charlie ignored his sister's comment, making his way towards the public showers nearby after grabbing his clothes and a few supplies to get ready for the day.

'Come on, let's go get some food,' Yang said, dragging her younger sister with her.

Robyn chuckled as the red-haired girl struggled against her sister's grip before following the two out of the hall.

Just like last night, the food served at the cafeteria was not anywhere near the quality that she had been used to growing up in Atlas. Whilst it wasn't terrible, it wasn't particularly good either, and she had a bit of difficulty eating.

Ruby and Yang on the other hand were wolfing down platefuls of food, repeating multiple times how good the food was. Robyn had to interfere when Ruby reached for the milk jug again to pour her third glass of milk.

'Make sure you leave some for Charlie. He has a few glasses in the mornings too.'

'He drinks milk too?!' Ruby asked excitedly, bouncing up and down in her seat as Yang rolled her eyes.

'Uh, yeah?'

'See, I told you!' Ruby shouted victoriously, pointing a finger in her sister's face. 'I told you that drinking milk is good for you!'

'Agreed,' Charlie added, sitting down beside his sister and Jaune, taking the jug and pouring a glass of milk before quickly downing the lot and pouring another. If he also had trouble eating the food, he didn't show any signs of it, as he also quickly ate his food, although not having quite as much as the sisters on the other side of the table.

Once the five of them had finished eating, they made their way towards the locker room where they had put their weaponry and equipment the previous day. Robyn and Charlie split up from the others as their allocated lockers were on the other side of the room.

'You have a fan you know,' Robyn taunted, jabbing her brother in the side.

'Who?' Charlie asked, causing his sister to raise her eyebrows and look back in the direction of the two sisters.

'Yang,' she replied. 'Every time she thinks nobody is looking she keeps throwing you looks.'

'Ever the observant one aren't you sis? You sure you aren't just jealous she isn't paying attention to you?' Charlie said, rubbing the top of her head and making a mess of her hair. She snarled at him and swatted his arm away, but blushing nonetheless. 'Besides, you can't be too specific. I've noticed quite a few people staring, not just Yang.'

'Yeah, well, just make sure you keep an eye out, alright!' Robyn said quickly.

He chuckled lightly, turning to his locker and entering the passcode he had set for it the previous day. The door swung open, revealing his two blades, each made of pitch black metal. Thin lines curled around the blades, still glowing a soft red, meeting with the handle where a more prominent glow was emanating from inside the leather wrapped hilt.

Charlie rubbed his thumbs down the sensors at the edge of the handles, causing the blades to recede, shortening from their long forms to small daggers, each only a few inches long. He reached behind his back and sheathed them in the small sheaths attached to the back of his belt. Likewise, his sister grabbed her bow and quiver full of arrows from her locker, slinging each across her back, the arrows rattling before they finally came to a stop.

'So, are we going to team up, or would you rather get on a team with the leader of your fan club?' Robyn teased, closing the door of her locker.

'I didn't realise you were so open to the idea of being on a team with me,' Charlie said, mocking surprise and gratitude, placing a hand over his heart. 'It's really touching that you'd think of me first.'

Robyn punched him again, poking her tongue out at her brother, an action which he mirrored.

'Seriously Charlie,' she said, putting on her serious face. 'We've already met a few people, but we know each other a lot better than any of the other people we've met here. We know how each other thinks, and there isn't really anybody else we could work with right now who would be able to do the things we can do.'

'True, but if we don't learn to work with other people, we aren't actually going to learn anything. If we spend the next four years working together, something we've already been doing for the last six years and even before that, we're going to quickly reach a point where we can't improve any more, and we won't know how to work with other people, because we'll be so used to working together.'

Robyn looked at the floor, scratching her boot across the floor. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'

Charlie opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a blur of motion a few steps beside him, in which he saw Jaune flying across the room, stapled to the wall by a red and gold spear through his hood.

An announcement sounded over the intercom, instructing the first-year students to make their way to the cliffside to begin initiation. Charlie flicked his eyes briefly up to the speaker before returning them to Jaune.

He watched for a moment as Weiss and another girl, whom he instantly recognised as Pyrrha Nikos, the Mistralian Champion walked past, retrieving her weapon from the wall with a flick of her wrist. Ruby and Yang made their way over, helping Jaune to his feet.

Charlie shook his head, moving to say something to sister, but she had already vanished whilst he was distracted by the commotion. He sighed briefly, closing his locker and making his way towards the cliffside.

* * *

It took another half an hour for the other students to turn up, until the edge of the cliff was littered with students, each one directed to stand on a metallic plate on the ground, the crest of Vale imprinted on the flat surface.

Once all of the students were standing at attention, Ozpin stood before them all, took a sip from the coffee in his mug and begun to speak.

'For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest.'

'Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams. Well, allow me to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today.'

Charlie heard a small whining sound come from slightly further down the line. Turning his head quickly, he saw Ruby pouting at the headmaster.

'These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well.'

Charlie saw Robyn turn to face him out of the corner of his eye, just as Ruby let out a groaning noise.

'That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.'

'WHAAAT?!'

This time more than just Charlie turned to look at Ruby as she let out her latest outburst. Ozpin however ignored the interruption and continued to speak.

'After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die.'

'You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?'

'Yeah, um, sir?'

Charlie turned his head to see Jaune at the end of the line raising his arm in the air, attempting to get Ozpin's attention.

'Good!' Ozpin said, ignoring the boy. 'Take your positions.'

Charlie turned to his sister, who shrugged towards him, and moved into a bracing position. Charlie bent his knees slightly, mimicking his sister.

'Uh, sir? I've got a question,' Jaune said, continuing his attempt to get Ozpin's attention.

A clicking noise sounded at the far end of the line. Charlie managed to see at the last second a student get flung into the air as the plate they were standing on sent them off of the cliff. The clicking noises continued, moving down the line quickly, sending each student into the air.

'So, this landing strategy thing…. What is it? You're like, dropping us off or something?' Jaune continued.

Charlie couldn't help but sigh and shake his head.

'No. You will be falling,' Ozpin finally replied.

Robyn turned to face her brother, giving him a brief shrug as the plate beneath her clicked, sending her high into the air. Charlie bent his knees a bit more, and as the plate released, kicked off at the same time to get a bit more height and speed out of his jump.

Charlie had flown before. But it was always in an airship of some form. As he rushed through the air, he couldn't help but feel alive. The wind rushing past him, rustling his hair and pulling at his clothes, flapping his jacket behind him like a cape. The sea of green trees rolled beneath him. He straightened his arm, holding them behind him to attempt to streamline himself as much as possible.

Soon enough, his initial upwards momentum began to slow, and he started to fall back down to the ground, the trees rushing up to greet him. Reaching behind him, he pulled out his blades, swiping his thumbs upwards across the sensors, extending the blades to their full lengths. He pressed his thumb against the sensor of the blade in his right hand, causing the lines weaving across the metal to glow an even brighter red. He held the other blade before him, gripping onto it tightly. Once he was close enough, he slammed the now red blade against the black one. A small explosion of fire emanated from the collision, and slowed Charlie's momentum slightly.

He clashed the blades together again, slowing himself down until he was close enough to land. Shortening their lengths again, Charlie held them out of his way as he landed on his feet, rolling across the ground to minimise the pain from the fall, stopping by placing his hand on the ground in a three-point landing.

He glanced upwards, eyes surveying his surroundings. He couldn't see anything in his immediate surroundings, but he didn't want to lower his guard. Satisfied that there were no immediate threats, he sheathed his blades once again, taking off into the brush.

* * *

Robyn watched Charlie out of the corner of her eye as they fell towards the treeline. He took out his blades and began to slow his descent, soon falling out of her line of vision. She pulled out her own weapon, taking the bow in her left hand, the bright white metal shining like a beacon in the sunlight.

As she got closer to the treeline, she drew an arrow from her quiver, nocking it to the string as her eyes scanned the forest below for the best anchor point. Soon enough, she saw a large enough tree that would suffice for her descent.

With her right hand laying across the string, she began to draw back the bow as she flew through the air. Taking a moment to try and aim, she realised that she was moving too quickly to get an accurate shot off. Sighing quickly, she activated her semblance, slowing time around her until it seemed as if she were no longer falling. Taking the time to get her aim perfect, she smiled before firing the arrow at the thickest branch she could see. She disabled her semblance as soon as she let go, and the projectile shot forwards. As it was released, the nock of the arrow shattered, a thin wire latching onto the side of her bow. She heard a dull thud as the arrow hit the tree branch, and the wire stopped running out of the arrow, winding up again until it went taught, holding her weight as she fell. She swung down into the forest below, rolling as she landed, drawing another arrow and checking for any Grimm.

A small beowolf happened to be nearby, turning towards the new arrival, baring its fangs at her. It went down on all fours, preparing to let out a howl to alert others to her arrival, but never got the chance the arrow flew down its throat, silencing it for good.

Robyn took another glance around her before rushing into the trees, keeping her bow in her hand, another arrow nocked and at the ready. As she ran northwards, she kept watching around her in the hopes of seeing another student, her brother in particular.

It wasn't long before she heard a crashing noise above her. She stopped running, pointing her bow upwards and drawing it back, ready to fire at whatever was above her.

What it turned out to be was another student, making her way down the tree branches. The girl noticed Robyn with her weapon trained at her, stopping long enough for her eyes to give the Arduin girl a quick once over, then dropping the last few feet to the ground before Robyn.

Once she landed, Robyn managed to get a better look at the girl, who, in Robyn's opinion, was rather cute. A black leather breastplate covered her chest, but left a small amount of midriff and cleavage viewable, although nowhere near as bad as Yang's clothing. A crimson vest sat atop the armour, cut open at the front, only covering her back and her shoulders. Blue jeans were hidden beneath a pair of knee high black boots, but still visible from the knee upwards. A pair of dark red sleeves ran up her forearms, but were covered by a pair of black gauntlets on her hands. A large black sword was slung across her back, the end of the hilt lining with the top of her head and the tip of the blade sitting a few inches from the ground.

Long red hair flowed from her head, curling around her shoulders, ending around the middle of her back, just a few inches shorter than Robyn's hair. Red eyes met her own, and watched as Robyn's eyes drifted to the top of the girl's head, where a pair of red, triangular fox ears sat, twitching slightly as the sounds of gunfire erupted from somewhere to the East.

Robyn's eyes drifted back down to the girl's own pair, which were still studying her face, waiting for some form of acceptance.

'Hey!' Robyn said, putting a friendly smile on her face, trying to show that she was pro-faunus, something that the girl was no doubt worried about. 'I'm Robyn!'

Robyn held out a hand to the girl, who looked down at it with a smile, grabbing Robyn's hand with her own gauntleted one, and although it was probably gentle, felt as if it were crushing the bones in her hand.

'Hannah,' the faunus-girl replied curtly.

Robyn kept the smile on her face as she died internally, screaming inside her mind until the grip on her hand stopped. 'So, shall we get going?'

Hannah nodded in response, courteously waving Robyn on.

'So, where are you from Hannah?' Robyn asked, glancing behind her at the fox-faunus.

'I'm from Vale,' Hannah replied. 'West district, so I'm kinda used to seeing Beacon. How about you?'

'Atlas,' Robyn replied. 'My brother and I came here together. Our parents wanted us to stay in Atlas to go to the academy there, but we were always told how Beacon was the best academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses in Remnant, so here we are.'

'Oh, were you trying to find your brother?' Hannah asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

Robyn stopped and turned to face her teammate, noticing a cute, but worried look on her face, realising that the girl may have thought she just ruined Robyn's plan.

'Pfft, nah,' Robyn half-lied, trying to lift Hannah's spirits. 'I've spent the last seventeen years with him, it's good that I've found someone else to partner up with!'

Hannah smiled in return, thankful for Robyn's words, and the pair continued northwards.

* * *

Charlie had been walking for far too long now to have not met another student. Or any Grimm for that matter. He had landed about ten minutes previously, and had been running northwards ever since, meaning he had probably already travelled most of the forest by now. How could he not have found anything yet?

A loud crashing noise emanated from his right, followed by a loud roaring sound.

He just had to jinx himself, didn't he?

Charlie ducked to the side as he felt wind rush past him, a large claw swerving through where he was just standing. Rolling to his feet, he drew his blades from behind his back and extended them to their full lengths.

Before him was a large Ursa Major, bone spikes protruding from its back, red eyes glowing at him in hatred. It reared back on its hind legs before pouncing at him again, swiping its claws to rend him in two.

Charlie flipped backwards out of the way, swinging his blades at the Grimm's face once he had landed, activating the dust in his blades, jolting the Ursa's head to the side from the explosion. The Grimm roared at him again, swatting at him once again, only for him to dodge the strike.

Charlie flicked the blades to their shortest lengths, then flung them one after the other at the side of the Grimm's face. The first one dug deep into the flesh which wasn't protected by the bone mask, the second fuelled by dust creating a small explosion upon colliding with its face, creating enough force to bounce back towards Charlie, whilst also helping expel the first blade from the Grimm's flesh. Charlie nimbly caught the two blades as the Grimm retreated backwards a few steps before roaring at him again.

Charlie got into a better stance, extending his blades again, ready to attack, when a loud whining sound pierced the air around them, and a beam of purple energy pierced the side of the Ursa, sending it flying into a tree several feet away.

Charlie turned to the direction the beam originated from, and saw a girl dressed in purple leaping out of the bushes, large mace in hand. She brought the mace down upon the Grimm's head, beating it into the ground. She flipped through the air, positioning herself to land an uppercut to the Ursa's jaw with her mace.

Once the blow connected, the head of the mace disconnected from the handle, still joined by a long chain which followed the head of the mace through the air. Spinning on the spot, the girl swung the mace head into the side of the Grimm's neck, causing a loud cracking sound to echo through the clearing, as its neck broke. The beast fell to the ground dead as the mace head retracted back to the handle. The blades of the mace shifted around the handle, forming into a double-bladed axe, and the girl set the weapon across her back, turning to face Charlie.

Charlie immediately recognised the girl, as he had spoken to her the previous night. Misty Mauve, a girl from Mistral who had travelled to Beacon to become a huntress, because she had enjoyed watching them fight in tournaments at the orphanage she was raised in.

Just as last night, her shorter blonde hair curled around her face, a few bangs covering her face and hiding her deep purple eyes. And just like last night, the gold ring with an amethyst gem lay around her neck, held there by a thin gold chain. However, today she was wearing her clothes, rather than a pair of purple pyjama short and a black top.

A black half-top said on her chest, covering her upper body, but leaving her midriff exposed. A purple overcoat, which was only slightly longer than the top sat above the black material, collar and edges turned over smartly. Black skinny jeans covered her legs, and a leather pouch was strapped to her leg, a slightly lighter black than her jeans. Purple ankle-high converse sat on her feet, the ends of her jeans running inside her shoes.

'Don't worry, I'm here to save the day,' Misty joked, giving a small bow towards Charlie, who had just sheathed his blades.

'Why thank you Misty,' Charlie sarcastically replied. 'I had no idea how I was going to defeat it.'

Misty winked at him. 'That's why I'm here of course.'

Charlie rolled his eyes at her antics. 'Come on, let's get going, partner.'

'Woah woah woah,' Misty said, grabbing his arm before he could run off. 'I saw you ages ago, I just couldn't keep up with you that well. It's a bit painful to try and run so fast when you're really top heavy.'

Misty motioned towards her bust, which rivalled that of Yang's. Charlie blushed lightly, closing his eyes and nodding in acceptance.

'Alright then, we can walk the rest of the way.'

'Thanks Charles!' Misty said, prancing off into the trees with Charlie in tow.

A few minutes later, the pair heard another rustling in the trees to their left. Misty drew her weapon from her back, spinning it quickly, the axe shifting into a railgun, before pointing it towards the noise, ready to fire, assuming it was another Grimm.

Charlie however, had noticed the blue sheen of his sister's hair, and placed a hand on Misty's weapon, causing her to lower it.

'Robyn!' he called out, causing the head of hair to turn in his direction.

'Charlie?' his sister's voice called back, followed by more rustling noises as she approached. A few moments later, and his sister emerged from the bushes alongside a red haired faunus girl. 'I was wondering when I would find you!'

'Likewise,' Charlie replied. 'Uh, Robyn, this is Misty. Misty, this is Robyn, my sister.'

Misty stared at the blue haired girl sceptically, before turning her gaze back to Charlie. She looked the pair up and down, confusion on her face.

'Yeah, we get that a lot,' Robyn admitted, bring Hannah into the group. 'And this is Hannah. Hannah, my brother Charlie, and as it seems his teammate Misty.'

Hannah nodded briefly at the two, letting out a small, 'Hi.'

The four of them stood in silence for a few moments before Charlie spoke.

'So, let's keep going?' he proposed, answered by unanimous agreement from the girls.

'Anybody volunteering to lead?' Charlie asked, glancing around the group. His sister rolled her eyes at him, moving forwards with her bow at the ready. Hannah followed closely behind, with Misty and Charlie taking up the rear.

'Are you sure you two are related?' Misty whispered into Charlie's ear, having to stand on her tiptoes to do so. 'Cause I don't see any family resemblance.'

'Yes, I'm sure,' Charlie sighed, shaking his head. 'Just once, I'd love to come across someone who believes us when we say we're brother and sister.'

'If you ever find someone like that, I'll give you fifty lien,' Misty replied, causing Charlie to smirk.

The group spent a few more minutes silently walking through the forest, before the air around them was filled with a loud, high-pitched wail from behind them, echoing through the trees around them.

'You guys hear that?' Robyn asked, spinning around on her foot and aiming her bow at the trees behind them, looking for an enemy trying to attack them.

'No, I didn't hear a thing,' Misty replied sarcastically, drawing her axe from her back. Charlie followed suit with his blades and Hannah raised her blade, the great sword shifting its form into that of a heavy machine gun, aiming the long barrel at the trees around them. The forest was silent around them for a few more moments, before a voice started growing louder as it came towards them.

However, when it was close enough, the four of them realised the sound was coming from above them, and managed to look up in time to see a blur of motion as a student flew through the air, screaming, 'WWHHHYYYYYYY?!'

'You guys saw that too, right?' Robyn asked, eyes trying to trace the student across the sky.

Charlie was about to send a sarcastic reply her way, when a glint of gold caught his attention. Looking away from his sister, letting Misty take the sarcastic role once more, he saw Pyrrha Nikos, champion of Mistral running their way, wearing an expression of… fear?

That was when the crashing sound reached their ears, and a large Grimm broke its way through the treeline behind Pyrrha. A Deathstalker, big, tough and incredibly ugly, even for a Grimm. And as much as Charlie would love to take it out, something of that size in such a claustrophobic area wouldn't be easy to fight.

'Come on, we can take it!' Misty said excitedly, raising her weapon, pointing the end towards the Deathstalker, and letting loose a burst of purple energy, just like before. However, instead of sending the Grimm flying, like the Ursa had done previously, the Deathstalker didn't even seem to slow down, the energy from the blast splashing across its armour as it continued chasing the Mistralian girl.

'Yeah, I don't think so,' Charlie said, sheathing his blades and putting a hand on Misty's shoulder, turning her the other direction. 'Run!'

And so, the four of them took off Northwards, Pyrrha and the Deathstalker close behind. Even Misty managed to keep up with them this time, despite her previous griping about not enjoying running quickly. A short minute brought them to the edge of the treeline, where a small set of ruins lay in the centre of a large clearing, and a pair of familiar looking girls were standing.

'We're in the open now, let's get it!' Misty called out, slowing to a standstill, grabbing out her weapon once more. Hannah decided to listen to the blonde, stopping alongside her, whilst Robyn and Charlie continued running. Pyrrha dashed past the pair, not stopping to aid them, and Charlie couldn't blame her. He had seen the way she fought, and this class of Grimm was a bit out of her comfort zone.

Misty's axe clicked lightly, the blades separating to form the head of the mace before it disconnected from the handle, a long chain linking the mace head to the handle, and she swung it around briefly before slamming the head into the Deathstalkers bone mask.

A loud crunching noise resonated across the clearing, but the Deathstalker barely seemed phased by the attack. Instead, it retaliated with an attack of its own, wrapping its tail around the chain of Misty's weapon, and flicking to the side, sending her across the clearing, landing roughly on the ground.

Hannah raised her heavy gun, firing at the Grimm. A barrage of red energy flew from the barrels, loud but slow thundering shots bursting from the barrel. Bursts of dust firing towards the Grimm, each shot crashing into the hide of the large Grimm, but not stopping the monster. The Deathstalker raised its tail once again, flinging its stinger towards the faunus girl.

Hannah didn't even bother moving, letting the tail hit her body. Except… it never hit her. Instead, the tail seemed to pass straight through her. Hannah leapt into the air, spinning her gun in her hand, the rifle shifting back into the great sword she had slung across her back earlier. She grabbed it, and swung it down at the Deathstalkers tail, which unfortunately had already been ripped back out of the earth, deflecting her blow off of the thick white armour lining the tail.

Thrown off balance, Hannah struggled to realign herself in the air, and was slammed backwards by one of the Deathstalkers claws, throwing her into Pyrrha, causing the two to drop in a pile at the feet of the twins, the sisters, Blake, as well as Ren and Nora, two other students Charlie had spoken to the night before.

'Great, the gang's all here!' Yang exclaimed. 'Now we can die together!'

'Not if I can help it,' Ruby replied determinedly, swinging her scythe in a quick flourish and pulling the trigger, dashing towards the large Grimm. Yang let out a cry of worry, but it fell on deaf ears, as Ruby was already across the clearing, scythe poised to cut the Deathstalker in half. But, she had failed to aim for a weak spot on the Grimm's hide, causing her blow to be deflected just like Hannah's, and allowing the Grimm to hit her back, flinging her onto her back.

It was at this point that Charlie noticed the large Nevermore circling around to fly at the small girl, who was now running back towards the group, away from the Deathstalker, which was currently giving chase.

'Yang,' Charlie warned her, motioning towards the large Grimm heading towards her sister. Yang's eyes grew wide in fear as she realised what was happening, taking off across the clearing to try and reach her sister in time, Charlie close behind.

The Nevermore pulled back its wings, then thrust them forwards, a volley of large black feathers piercing into the ground, one of which stapled Ruby's cloak to the ground with it. Yang slid to a stop to avoid being stabbed by one of the feathers, whilst Charlie took out one of his blades and activated the dust inside it, lighting it on fire and cutting through several of them to make a quick path to Ruby. But from the speed of the Deathstalker creeping up on the young girl, he knew he would never make it in time.

He prepared to activate his semblance, when a white blur dashed past him, stopping in front of Ruby and a wall of ice erupted from the ground, encasing the descending stinger and tail. Looking closer, he could see Weiss Schnee standing before the trapped girl. Weiss Schnee, the girl who did nothing but criticise Ruby all day yesterday, had saved her life. Weiss Schnee, the girl who had always been cold towards his sister and himself. Who would have thought?

Yang rushed past Charlie as he stood watching the two speak with one another, too far away for him to hear what they were saying and he had no intention to move closer to find out. He flicked his wrist, deactivating the flames curling around his blade, and shortened it before replacing it in his sheath once again. Weiss strutted past him, ignoring him entirely.

'That was a good thing you just did,' Charlie said, watching her walk past him.

She spared him a quick glance, one that spoke silent words saying, 'I'm not that mean.'

Charlie waited a few seconds longer as Ruby and Yang approached the group once more, and the three made their way back to the rest of the students, where Jaune was nervously watching the Nevermore in the sky.

'Uh, guys? That thing's circling back! What are we going to do?' he asked worriedly.

'Well, there's no sense in dilly-dallying,' Weiss said, turning towards the ruins housing small chess pieces on platforms.

'I agree,' Robyn added. 'What we need is right in front of us.'

'They're right,' Charlie added. 'Our mission was only to grab an artefact and get back to cliffs alive.'

'There's no real point in fighting these things,' Ruby said.

'Run and live?' Jaune asked, before putting on a happier expression. 'That's an idea I can get behind!'

'Seconded,' Hannah added, stalking towards the ruin and picking up one of the chess pieces.

Charlie walked into the ruin after her alongside Ruby and Jaune, picking up a white bishop, a white knight and a white rook piece respectively. Charlie pocketed the piece inside his jacket as Ren warned them the Deathstalker was breaking free and that they should be leaving.

The twelve students rushed off back towards the Cliffs, skirting more westwards to avoid the thickest parts of the forest, as well as the Deathstalker that was no doubt on their tail again.

The Nevermore however was much harder to shake, as it could keep track of them as it flew overhead. Eventually they reach a large clearing with huge ruins scattered across the clearing, leading to a large tower bridging the gap between the cliffs and the clearing, hanging above a deep chasm with fog and mist hiding the bottom.

The Nevermore flew overhead, landing at the top of the tower over the chasm, and screeched at the students, who ducked behind various broken pillars to keep out of sight. Charlie looked around to Misty, who had hidden behind the same pillar as him, about to ask if she had any ideas, when he saw the Deathstalker bursting out of the treeline, bolting towards them as fast as its legs could carry it.

'Aw man, run!' Jaune yelled, bolting out of his hiding spot towards the bridge alongside Pyrrha.

Charlie pulled at Misty's arm, getting her out of cover and chasing after the other two. The Nevermore reared up in the air, and fired large feathers at the approaching students. Charlie pulled out his swords and lit the fire dust within them, spinning through the air and slicing through the feathers to keep them away from his partner and himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hannah pushing forwards, slashing her large blade through the air, cutting large feathers in half to avoid the large feathers. His sister ran behind the faunus girl, hand on her shoulder to keep up with her.

A loud booming sound erupted behind them as Nora fired a grenade launcher at the Nevermore, clouds of pink erupting around its head, forcing it to fly off to evade the brutal attack from the energetic girl. Ren and Blake dashed across the front of the Deathstalker to distract it from Nora as Weiss grabbed her, moving her away from danger with the use of her glyphs.

Reaching the bridge, Pyrrha spun on her heel, spinning her blade in her hand until it shifted into a rifle, supporting the weapon with a hole in the edge of her shield as she fired at the Deathstalker, attempting to keep it at bay.

'Go, go, go!' she called out, constantly firing. Ren and Hannah joined in, firing rapidly at the armoured Grimm whilst the rest of the group made their way onto the bridge. They followed suit once Charlie and Misty reached the bridge, starting to make their way across.

The twelve of them ran across the hardened stone, desperately trying to reach the other side before anything else happened to them.

Which, of course didn't happen.

Charlie saw the Nevermore coming in for an attack out of the corner of his eye, recognising it was heading straight for the bridge. He reached out to Robyn and Misty, the two whom were closest towards him, holding them back as he leapt into the air, planting his feet against Hannah's back and pushing her forwards as he was sent backwards, pulling the two other girls with him.

They landed roughly on the bridge as the Nevermore crashed into the stones, and although he had tried his best, the edge of its wing clipped his sister and dragged her off of the bridge, ripping her from his grip.

'Robyn!' he called out, scrambling to his feet as he watched her twist in the air, firing her bow towards the other side of the bridge, a thin wire stretching from her bow to where the arrow dug into the stone, as she swung downwards to a lower platform below the rest of them.

He sighed with relief, nodding at his sister, before remembering about the Deathstalker, spinning on the spot as the rest of the group began defending themselves against the beast. Blake spun in the air, flinging her weapon in wide arcs at the beast, but unable to penetrate its armour. Pyrrha and Ren tried to stay out of its reach, firing their guns at the Grimm.

The Deathstalker tried to creep further onto the bridge, but Charlie clicked his swords, striking the tops of them against the ground, creating walls of flames to keep the monster at bay. The Deathstalker shrieked loudly and backed up slightly to keep away from the heat.

Misty spun her weapon in her hand, firing a few energy bolts at the beast, the blasts splashing against its armour just like before, but it was enough to stop it from attempting to advance any more.

A loud banging sound emanated from the other sound of the chasm, and there was a crumbling sound, followed by screams of disapproval, and a particularly loud, 'SMASH!' Before he knew it, Nora had flown overhead and dropped the head of her grenade-launcher turned hammer on the Deathstalkers head, pulling the trigger and creating an even more powerful impact. She flipped backwards out of the way, but hit Blake by accident, knocking the poor girl over the edge.

As Blake fell off the side of the bridge, a deep shriek echoed across the chasm. For a moment, Charlie had to look around to see the source, until the shriek sounded again, and he saw the source for himself.

* * *

After her less than graceful landing, Robyn quickly turned to give her brother a small wave, knowing that he would be worrying about her. He gave a short nod in reply, then turned to face the Deathstalker again. She looked around quickly, seeing the rest of the group quite a way above her, too far for her to try and climb.

She noticed the inside of the main column at the centre of the platform she was standing on was hollowed out, and what looked like a set of stairs leading upwards. She took off towards the staircase, intending to make her way upwards to help the rest of the group out.

She made it to the entrance of the inside of the pillar before realising that the room was already inhabited. A black mass stirred in the darkness, and several pairs of glowing red eyes flicked open. She quickly backed up, drawing her bow and firing an arrow directly between two of the red eyes.

A deep shriek resonated through the room and out towards her as the two eyes thrashed in the darkness for a moment, before slowing to a stop and focussing on her once again. Then, in a single movement, all of the eyes began to dart towards her at once. Robyn spun on her heel and rolled out of the way as the sound of thundering footsteps filled the air.

Turning back, she finally saw the threat which she had accidentally stumbled on. Large, thick, muscular legs supported a large black body with various bone spikes and armour plating as it crawled out of the hole leading into the central pillar.

What really caught her attention however was the various heads sitting atop long, snakelike necks, waving in the air. Each of the nine heads stared at her, blood red eyes glowing at her. Like the rest of the Grimm, the faces were covered by white bone masks, covered with red lines. The central head was more ornately decorated, an array of bone spikes around the back of its skull, almost organised to resemble a crown.

The Grimm let out another deep shriek, causing Robyn to cover her ears, as this time the sound was much louder, and seemed to be more focussed. She glanced upwards to keep an eye on it, and saw the central head rearing back, mouth open wide. The head then shot forwards, and a stream of green bile shot towards her.

Robyn dodged out of the way, rolling across the stonework. A hissing sound brought her attention back to where she had just been standing, and saw the stonework was melting away, the bile acting like an acid. She got back to her feet, looking down at her weapon and realised just how outmatched she currently was.

'CHARLES!' she called out in panic.

* * *

As soon as his sister called out to him, and using his proper name, rather than the nickname she always used, he knew that she was in trouble. He glanced across the rupture in the bridge, and saw Hannah peering over the edge, eyes wide as she saw the trouble Robyn was in.

'Hannah!' he called out, her head whipping to face him. 'Get down there!'

She nodded in reply, leaping over the edge towards a nearby pillar, embedding her blade into the stonework and slowly sliding down the pillar to reach the lower floor.

'What are we doing?' Misty asked.

Charlie turned to face her. 'Get us down there,' he said, nodding towards her weapon. She looked at it in understanding, grabbing hold of his arm and extending the mace head. Without warning, she leapt off of the edge of the bridge, swinging her mace head upwards, catching it on the edge of the bridge, swinging them down towards the Grimm. At the peak of their swing, Misty flicked her wrist, causing the mace head to come loose from the bridge, and swung downwards, braining one of the heads, but only causing it to turn and face her in anger.

Charlie ripped himself free of her grip, swinging his blade downwards across the back of one of the necks. The blade made it halfway, and he hung from the neck of the Grimm, which swung around in pain. Charlie ripped the blade free, spinning in the air and cutting through the second half of the neck, separating the head from the body.

He landed on the ground, rolling out of the way as the neck collapsed, slithering across the ground. He was about to continue pressing the attack, when he realised the raw flesh at the end of the neck was shifting grotesquely. In a few moments, he realised with shock that the head was growing back, but it wasn't just one head….

It was two of them.

He watched in shock as the neck rose from the ground, and ten pairs of glowing eyes turned to look at him. The central head reared back, preparing to fire acidic bile towards him. He heard his sister call his name, and heard the twang of her bow. Out of instinct, he reached up and grabbed the arrow out of the air. The arrow tugged backwards, and he was pulled along with it, out of the path of the acid which promptly melted through the stonework where he had been standing.

He skidded across his back, before reaching his arms behind his head and flipping to his feet. Hannah nodded at him, letting go of the trail of wire she had used to pull him out of harm's way, and Robyn disconnected the end of the wire from her bow. Their silent conversation was short lived however, as the Grimm charged towards them, each of the heads snapping towards them.

Misty shifted her weapon back into the mace, firing a few blasts of energy at the Grimm, slowing its approach enough for them to move out of the way. Robyn fired an arrow upwards, leaping off the edge of the platform with the wire in hand, Hannah hanging on for dear life, blindly firing her heavy machine gun in the general area of the Grimm.

Charlie flourished his swords briefly, igniting them with dust and sending a wave of flame towards the Grimm. Combined with another blast from Misty's weapon, the beast slowed to a halt, rearing backwards. Charlie slammed his blades into the ground, the shock from the hit lifting the two of them into the air. Misty extended the chain again, swinging it into the central head and pulled herself as well as Charlie over the top of the Grimm, the pair landing behind the monster.

Hannah and Robyn swung back onto the platform further away, and both began firing their weapons at the beast, but doing little to damage it. The Grimm split its attention between the two teams, Charlie and Misty drawing the short straw as the head with the crown turned to face them, rearing back to fire more acid at them.

'Throw me!' Charlie yelled, pointing to the other side of the platform, placing a foot on the head of Misty's mace. The blonde nodded, raising the weapon with a bit of strain due to the extra weight and flung him out of the way. Mid-air, Charlie shortened his blades, and flung them one after the other at the ground where Misty was standing. The first one had enough force to send her flying after him, the second simply bounced backwards, sending both blades back into his hands.

The acid streaked across the ground, reaching towards one of the support pillars, causing it to melt. What didn't help the matter, was a loud crumbling noise from above them as the Nevermore crashed into the tower above them, sending large chunks of stone falling towards them from above. Several heavy pieces hit the platform, and combined with the failing support pillar, the platform began to sway beneath them, portions of it crumbling beneath them.

The Grimm however didn't seem to care about this, charging across the now uneven terrain, clambering over the stone chunks without a care in the world, chasing after its prey. One head snapped at Charlie, who flipped backwards to dodge the bite, swinging his blade across the top of its head, the blade glancing off of the bone mask.

The head rose quickly, knocking him into the air. It prepared to take a second bite at him, but Misty wrapped her mace around its neck, holding it down. Charlie twirled in the air, activating the fire dust in one of the blades, clashing it against the other to propel himself towards the head. Once close enough, he swung the flame coated blade at its neck once more, the heated blade only requiring the one slice to cut cleanly through the thick skin.

As he had hoped, after watching for a few seconds, there didn't appear to be any signs of the head regenerating as the heat from his blade had been enough to semi-cauterize the wound, stopping the growth from occurring. However, the rest of the heads turned back to him, and he realised he needed to move.

The heads took turns to snap at him, and he dodged each and every one of them, flipping, jumping and rolling out of the way of the attacks, slamming his flaming blade across the bone masks when he couldn't dodge to create a small explosive force to knock the head back slightly.

Hannah leapt onto the creatures back, running up on of the necks, great sword in hand. She reached the back of one of the heads, and stabbed the blade through the side of its head and pulled backwards, ripping the top of its head off, but leaving the lower jaw untouched.

Robyn darted forwards, spinning her bow in her hands as it began to shift its form into that of a long spear. She swung the blade of the weapon across one of the back legs, cutting a deep gash halfway through the limb, exposing raw flesh to the air. The beast tumbled to the ground, letting out a deep shriek, causing the platform to shudder beneath their feet once again. As if on cue, just to add to their troubles, the rest of the bridge collapsed, falling against the platform and one of the other support pillars alongside a flailing Deathstalker. The platform shuddered again, and tilted on an angle, causing the four students to flail their arms as they tumbled across the stonework, rolling down the platform towards the mist below. Robyn transformed her spear back into a bow, firing an arrow at the side of the cliff, grabbing the trail of wire and Hannah as she fell off the edge, rolling lightly before swinging to safety.

Charlie rolled around to find Misty, but she had already found her way to her feet and swung her mace at a nearby pillar, digging the head into the side of the stone. She swung upwards, and clung onto the pillar before realising that she had forgotten Charlie.

And Charlie had forgotten about the Grimm. It rolled down the slope towards him, landing atop him, and the two went tumbling down the platform together. The sudden impact caused Charlie to lose his grip on his weapons, and they went skittering away from him. He grasped at the stonework, attempting to find some grip.

As the Grimm reached the end of the platform, it managed to dig some claws and teeth into the stones, holding it in place. Charlie bounced across one of the heads, tumbling into empty space.

And then an arrow flew past his face, a thin wire running behind it. He grabbed at the rope, stopping the arrows flight and he swung beneath the platform. Looking up he saw Hannah holding the side of the platform with one hand, holding Robyn with the other as his sister held onto the other end of the trailing wire with determination.

Charlie swung his legs in front of him, giving himself the momentum to swing back onto the platform. Misty had also jumped back down onto the platform, balancing at the edge of the stones, aiming her weapon at one of the heads of the Grimm. She fired a quick blast, purple energy splashing against its head, but not powerful enough to loosen its grip. What it did do however, was give Charlie's blades, which had been trapped beneath its jaw, the momentum to hurtle back up the platform towards their owner. Misty let loose another blast, giving the blades the extra boost to make their way back into Charlie's hands. He flourished them, igniting the blades with the dust within.

'Robyn, Hannah! Legs!' Charlie shouted at the two, who gave a quick nod in response. Hannah threw Robyn into the air, before pulling herself up after the shorter girl. Mid-air, Robyn changed her bow back into a spear, swinging downwards towards one of the Grimm's legs, whilst Hannah drew her own blade from her back, swinging it towards the other leg.

'Misty, shoot!' Charlie commanded, jumping into the air in front of Misty, placing his flaming blades beneath his feet, holding them against the firing end of the blonde's weapon. He heard a small whine as the weapon charged, then a sudden force behind him as he was fired towards the Grimm.

As Charlie made his way through the air, Hannah and Robyn severed the Grimm's two legs still holding onto the platform, Hannah with a single swing, and Robyn with a flurry of quick slashes and stabs at the vital tendons and ligaments that held it together. The beast roared in pain, most of the heads letting go of the platform, but one still held on tight. Charlie steered himself towards that head with a quick slam of his blades, swinging them around in an arc as he passed over head, cutting through its flesh, severing it at the neck.

The other heads spun to face him as they both began to fall once again. The head with the crown reared back to fire another burst of acid, but never got the chance as Charlie swung his blades, a wave of flames cutting through its throat and severing the head.

Charlie spun quickly, slamming his blades together to propel him back towards the platform, cutting through any of the other heads which got in his way. As he fell back towards the stonework, the last pieces of the edge began to fall away, crumbling into the mist below. Charlie slammed his blades together once again, but instead of hearing the expected explosion sound, he just heard the clashing of steel. Taking a quick glance, he realised the flames had deactivated, the lack of any glowing from within the blades indicating that the dust crystals he had loaded in there had run out.

Turning back to the platform, he saw he wasn't going to make it, as the closest section of stonework was too far away. With no other option, Charlie breathed deeply, and activated his semblance.

Time slowed around him, the crumbling platform and falling Grimm slowed down until they were no longer moving. Then, they started moving backwards, the falling Grimm raising back towards the platform, and the crumbling stones rising back up, joining back together with the rest of the platform. Charlie waited long enough until the platform had fully formed beneath him, before releasing his hold on his semblance, and time unfroze. He landed on the stonework, jumping forwards quickly to avoid the collapsing stones, running upwards towards Misty, who was looking on at him in surprise, as from her perspective, she had just seen him teleport from the middle of the air onto the stone platform in quick flashes of black energy.

'Go! Get out of here!' he yelled at the girls. Robyn nodded quickly, shifting her weapon back into a bow and firing another arrow towards the top of the chasm, waiting long enough for the arrow to reach the edge for grabbing the wire, jumping off the platform with Hannah clinging to her arm, the pair swinging towards the face of the rock.

Charlie reached Misty, and grabbed onto her free arm as she spun her mace around, digging the head into the side of the last remaining support pillar, causing it to begin collapsing. She pulled the two of them upwards, flinging them into the air. She spun her weapon, shifting it back into a railgun, aiming the weapon behind them and firing, the force propelling them towards Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, who were all waiting at the edge of the chasm, watching on in awe.

The two landed less than gracefully, quickly getting to their feet to pull Robyn and Hannah to the top, as they were still dangling beneath them all. Once the four of them were back at the top of the chasm, they turned to face Ruby, who was running up the side of the cliff, scythe wrapped around the Nevermore's throat. When she reached the top, she fired her scythe one last time, decapitating the Grimm, and sending its body on its way back to the bottom of the chasm.

'Wow,' Jaune stated, too stunned to say much else. Charlie agreed with him.

* * *

After the rest of the students made their way up the side of the cliff to where Ruby was waiting for them, it only took them a few more minutes to run along the Cliffside back towards where Ozpin and Goodwitch were waiting. The teachers congratulated them on their performances, instructing them to head back to the academy and be in the amphitheatre in an hour's time.

Their waiting didn't last long. The students took time to wash themselves off after their battles, then headed towards the amphitheatre, where other students were already crowded around in anticipation. A few moments after their arrival, Ozpin and Goodwitch had appeared on the stage, and begun congratulating them all once again, before beginning to read out the teams which had been formed that day.

'Jaune Arc,' Ozpin began calling out, prompting Jaune to make his way onto the stage. 'Nora Valkyrie. Pyrrha Nikos. Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Juniper.'

The rest of the group whistled, cheered and clapped for their friends.

'Led by, Jaune Arc!' Ozpin concluded.

This prompted them to only cheer even louder as Jaune's face took on a look of surprise. Their cheers quickly turned to laughter as Pyrrha knocked Jaune over, albeit most likely accidentally.

'Charles Arduin,' Ozpin called out, as Team Juniper made their way off of the stage. 'Hannah Kitsun. Robyn Arduin. Misty Mauve.'

The four students made their way onto the stage, ushered on by Ruby and Yang's cheers and gentle pushes. They lined up before the headmaster in the order he had called them on.

'The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Chrome. Led by, Charles Arduin!'

Charlie let out a small smile as Robyn sidestepped around Hannah, giving him a punch on the shoulder before giving him a quick hug. 'Good job!' she shouted in his ear, as the crowd of students cheered once more. Hannah nodded her approval towards him, and Misty smiled, giving him a quick wink as well.

The four of them made their way off of the stage towards Team Juniper as Ozpin called up the rest of their friends to the stage.

'And finally. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Blake Belladona. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by, Ruby Rose!'

The crowd cheered for the last time of the night as the girls celebrated with each other on the stage, some more than others.

The rest of the evening and night passed by in a blur. Charlie and his newly formed team celebrated with Jaune and Ruby's teams, the twelve of them filing into Team Juniper's dorm room, with barely enough space for them all to fit. After the sun had dropped below the horizon, Charlie led his team out alongside Team RWBY, leading them towards their own dorm room.

It was identical to Team Juniper's dorm room. Four beds in the various corners of the room, with a desk and chair beside each of them. A few shelves were nailed to the walls, the required schoolbooks for each of the students waiting for them. Their luggage had been brought to their room by the Beacon staff, waiting in a neat pile beside the door.

Charlie immediately sought out the bed furthest from the door, dropping his case at the foot of the bed and flopping atop the mattress whilst the rest of his team grabbed their own gear and sorted out who would sleep where.

After a few moments of bickering, the three of them finally sorted out where they would sleep, placing their luggage at the ends of their beds. They started opening their suitcases, pulling out their respective nightwear before remembering about Charlie.

'Hey, partner?' Misty called out to the boy, who grunted in response. 'You wanna give us a bit of privacy while we change?'

Charlie grunted in response, rolling off of his bed and grabbing his own clothes from his bag, making his way into the bathroom and closing the door behind him. He quickly stripped out of his clothes and put on his sleepwear, a simple black shirt and red boxer shorts. He waited patiently for an all clear from the girls, which his sister yelled out to him a few minutes later. Making his way back out of the bathroom, he slipped into his bed and closed his eyes.

Sleep had never come to him easily unfortunately, and he lay awake for another hour or so, listening to his teammates idle chattering, then the light sounds of them breathing as they fell asleep. When sleep finally found him, he welcomed it graciously, nodding off to sleep.

* * *

 **A little bit more fun for me to write, I spent a bit too long thinking about what I would do for the initiation. I wanted them all to meet up, but I didn't want to do what a lot of authors have done and just added the new characters into the canon battles, it seemed a bit uncreative to me. So, I decided to add in a Hydra Grimm, cause why the hell not right?!**

 **If you are still interested in the story, the next two chapters should hopefully be uploaded already, I'd love to see you guys there! :D**


	3. Chapter 3: Start of the Year

**Not a good sign... It's only the third chapter and I don't know what to put in these... Uhhhhh...**

 **Get your reading glasses ready and your moustache wax stowed**

 **That was awful...**

* * *

\- Chapter Three -

\- Start of the Year -

Their first few days at Beacon were quite tame, and almost boring compared to the initiation. Team Chrome met their teachers, one of which was a short, and slightly overweight older gentleman, with far too much interest in telling old tales of his youth. Although he did have an outstanding moustache. Professor Port was supposed to teach Grimm Studies, something that should be one of the more important classes available to Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, however he mostly rambled on about his acts of bravery in the past, occasionally pitting one of the students against a Grimm he had previously captured.

Doctor Oobleck on the other hand, was nearly the exact opposite of the Grimm Studies teacher. Tall, thin and very young, at least compared to most other Doctors Charlie knew. Oobleck spent much more time going through the important parts of history to teach his students to learn from the mistakes of the past. History was a much more in depth topic, and there was no way in hell that you could slack off in his class. Jaune had already suffered the consequences from doing just that.

However, as much as you didn't want to irritate Doctor Oobleck, it was much worse if you were to annoy Professor Goodwitch. She refused to accept any nonsense from any students, no matter who they were. Disobedience was not an idea she would entertain, and tardiness was a close second.

The upside to Professor Goodwitch's classes however were that they were combat classes. Something that all of the students were excited about. Glynda had gone through the specifics first, instructing all of the students who did not already know the rules of tournament style duels. Inside the combat area, nearly anything was allowed, but as soon as the aura level of one of the fighters had been depleted to what roughly equated to 15% of their maximum power, the battle had to stop, just in case actual physical harm was caused.

The Arduin twins already knew all of this information, as they had been instructed on the proper combat rules during their years of private tutelage at their home. A few of the other students, including Weiss and Pyrrha also knew these rules, and so did not need to pay as much attention, although they feigned a look of interest for their own sakes. All of the other students around them were hanging onto every word coming from Glynda's mouth, eager to get into the ring.

So, it came as no surprise that nearly every student sitting in the stands around the arena raised their hands to be picked when Glynda asked if there were any volunteers for the first match of the year. They were all disappointed however, as Glynda decided to change her mind.

'Perhaps it would be better if two students who already know the rules and regulations around a tournament style duel would participate in our, introductory fight,' Glynda said, eyes flicking down to her tablet as she scrolled through a list of possible candidates. 'Ms Schnee, Ms Arduin? Would the two of you care to demonstrate for us?'

Robyn's eyes raised upon hearing her name being called out alongside Weiss', and then her mouth set into a smile. She had been looking forward to finally being able to have a proper duel with Weiss. All those times when the Schnee Heiress had spoken ill of her, well, Robyn wasn't going to be pulling any punches.

Her brother, on the other hand, wasn't too happy with her plan of attack.

'Hey, I know you really want to get back at her,' he said, grabbing her arm as she began to make her way down to the arena floor. 'But don't do anything that you are going to regret.'

Robyn looked at him with narrowed eyes. 'What makes you think I'm going to do something regretful?'

'I've lived with you since birth, I know exactly what you want to do,' Charlie retorted.

Robyn flicked his hand off of her arm, giving her brother a light wink. 'Don't worry, I won't be too rough on her.'

Robyn then proceeded to make her way down the side stairs from the viewing platforms onto the arena floor, where both Professor Goodwitch, as well as her opponent were patiently waiting. Weiss was already standing at attention, her rapier drawn and held with the tip of the blade nearly touching the floor.

Ever since Weiss' argument with Ruby, which Robyn only knew of because of Yang's incredibly talkative personality, the short girl had become much friendlier. She was still a little bit cautious and slightly rude towards the twins, but she had become much nicer than Robyn had ever seen her before. Of course, that didn't stop Robyn from wanting to win this battle.

Goodwitch gave a nod towards Robyn, who took her place several feet before the Heiress. She pulled her weapon off of her back, spinning it a few times, shifting it into a spear. Robyn twirled her spear by her side a few times before settling into a defensive stance, weapon positioned before her, ready to block or parry an attack.

Glynda turned her head to Weiss, also giving her a nod. Weiss simply got into her usual combat position, blade now pointed towards Robyn. The dust chamber beneath the guard of her rapier spun, clicking until it landed in position. Robyn tried to make out which dust chamber it had landed on to gauge what form of attack Weiss may begin with, but from the distance couldn't quite make out which colour it was.

The clacking of Glynda's shoes against the floor echoed through the arena for a few moments before her voice rang out, 'Begin.'

Weiss made the first move, rotating her arm so her hilt covered her face but the blade of Myrtenaster was still pointed towards Robyn. A white glyph formed beneath the Heiress' feet and she dashed forwards in a blur of motion. Robyn held her ground and activated her semblance, slowing time around her, and the white blur became a clear image of the Heiress dashing towards her. Robyn waited until Weiss was close enough, then pushed her spear to the side. It connected with Myrtenaster, and the two weapons clanged against each other.

Weiss stopped her advance as her attack was deflected, spinning on the spot to face Robyn, who was already taking her opportunity to launch a counter-attack at the Heiress. Her spears white blade swung towards Weiss, who raised her rapier to block the attack. Robyn pulled her spear back and swung low at Weiss' feet, but her blow was easily parried.

Weiss flicked Myrtenaster up towards Robyn, who spun her spear around and deflected the incoming stab. Robyn swung her weapon around, shifting the positioning of her hands to deliver a more powerful strike against the heiress.

Weiss raised her weapon in response, dust chamber spinning as she did. Red dust energy flared across Myrtenaster when the two blades hit, the shock of the collision causing Robyn's to bounce backwards, throwing her off balance.

Weiss had hoped that the strength behind Robyn's attack would have resulted in her opponent being more off balance, but unfortunately the spear wielding girl simply spun on the spot, already preparing another attack.

When Weiss pulled back her blade to make a slash at Robyn's side, she was surprised when the shaft of the weapon found its way to block the attack. In another flash of motion, Robyn spun the weapon once around the back of Robyn's head and made its way towards Weiss' unprotected side. The Heiress made a feeble attempt at defending herself, but the power behind Robyn's strike pushed Myrtenaster against her chest and sent the Heiress tumbling backwards across the floor.

Letting out a smile, Robyn threw the spear into the air, letting it spin once. As it spun through the air, the spear shifted back into its usual bow form. She caught the handle in her left hand, already nocking an arrow on the string. She pulled back on the string then let it loose, sending it directly towards the prone Heiress.

Weiss managed to roll to her feet to dodge the first arrow, which exploded against the wall behind her, then deflected the next two with quick flicks of her wrist, knocking the arrows from the air, each causing some other effect to the arena around them, likely fuelled by dust covered arrow heads. When Weiss went to deflect the next arrow, she missed, but it was because Robyn had missed, shooting the arrow into the floor before the Heiress.

Confused for a moment, Weiss only noticed the thin trail of wire leading from the arrow back to Robyn when it was too late. She looked up in time to see Robyn tug on the wire and come rushing through the air towards the Heiress. Leg extended, Robyn's foot dug into Weiss' gut, knocking the wind from her and sending her back a few feet.

Robyn spun her bow in her hand, creating her spear once again and swinging it towards Weiss. The Heiress leant backwards, placing her hands on the floor behind her and ducked beneath the blade. She used her hands to flip backwards and out of Robyn's reach. Raising her rapier once again, Weiss dashed towards Robyn, who managed to sidestep her attack and swing her spear across the back of Weiss' legs, causing the Heiress to lose her footing and fall onto her back, sliding along the ground.

Robyn leapt after Weiss, weapon raised above her head as she prepared to stab it down onto the Heiress. Weiss placed her hands behind her and flipped backwards to her feet. Robyn passed over her head, blade clanging against the floor. Weiss formed a glyph behind her, leaping onto it before forming another glyph between herself and Robyn. Weiss leapt forwards, the glyph before her turning black and accelerating her speed upon contact. Weiss stretch a leg forwards, planting it in the square of Robyn's back, sending the girl rolling across the arena floor.

Weiss dug the tip of her blade into the floor, sending a wave of ice shards towards Robyn. The Arduin girl managed to get to her feet and leap into the air, spinning forwards and cutting the shards of ice from the floor. However, the floor was still coated with ice, and she nearly fell over once more upon landing. With her footing unsteady, when she blocked Weiss' next attack, her foot slipped out from beneath her, sending her to the ground on her back.

Weiss spun around, raising her hand and causing glyphs to appear all around Robyn. She dashed forwards, dust chamber spinning as Robyn made her way to her feet, then swinging her blade at the girl. Robyn, now on steady ground as she had made her way off of the ice, blocked Weiss' blade with ease, but the electrical dust energy coursing through the rapier gave her a slight shock once her blade came in contact with it. Robyn gritted her teeth and swung after Weiss, but was unable to land her counter attack as her opponent sped past her towards one of her glyphs. Weiss leapt into the air, feet landing on the glyph then pushing off towards Robyn.

Robyn activated her semblance once again to slow time around her, making it easier to take notice of Weiss' movements as she made them, making it unbelievably easy to spin her weapon into the right position to deflect the Heiress' next strikes, however the electrical dust energy coursing through the Heiress' blade was still shocking her with each connection.

As Weiss blurred around Robyn, she took her time to grow accustomed to the nature of the Heiress' strikes, and before long she noticed a flaw in her technique, that being that Weiss relied on her opponent to be trapped in one position during this manoeuvre. Robyn blocked another strike before dropping to the floor, watching as the Heiress passed over her during her next attack.

Pressing the tip of her spear into the ground, Robyn vaulted into the air. Weiss darted beneath her, blade tapping against the spear, pulling it from beneath her. Robyn let the spear spin in the air, swinging it around in a full arc to meet Weiss once more, connecting with the Heiress' blade and knocking the two opponents away from one another as the final charge of electrical dust gave Robyn one final shock.

By the time Weiss had landed on the floor, Robyn had already shifted her weapon into a bow and was firing off arrows towards the heiress. The first arrow clipped Weiss in the shoulder, but she easily deflected the next volley as she closed the distance between the two combatants once more.

The Heiress stabbed and slashed at Robyn, who parried each attack with her bow, knocking the blade of Myrtenaster aside, slowly moving backwards as the pair fought. Weiss stabbed at Robyn's face, who deflected the blow to the side, whipping the weapon back to Weiss' face, stunning the Heiress for a moment. Robyn ducked to the floor and swept Weiss' legs from beneath her, and firing an arrow at the Heiress as she began to fall to the floor.

The impact was soft against Weiss' side, but before she had hit the ground, small tendrils of wire wrapped around her body, and tensed tightly, trapping her arms to her side. Robyn backflipped to her feet, kicking Weiss back into the air, where she hung for a second, before an explosive impact struck her side, causing her to drop Myrtenaster and sending her across the room. The Heiress hit the ground hard and rolled across the arena floor, the thin tendrils of wire slipping off after being damaged from the explosion, as she rolled, freeing her arms.

Robyn raised her bow once again, firing a volley of arrows at Weiss, who blocked them all with a quick glyph in front of her. Weiss summoned another glyph beneath Robyn's feet and activated it, sending the girl into the air with a loud bang. The Heiress darted forwards for her weapon whilst Robyn flailed through the air. As her hand wrapped around the hilt of her weapon, an arrow flew towards Weiss, landing beside her hand. The same tendrils of wire wrapped around her fist, preventing her from raising Myrtenaster from the ground.

Weiss turned her head to see Robyn falling towards her, spear raised above her head as she prepared to strike at the girl. The blade met another glyph, which held the strike at bay. Weiss kicked out at Robyn's legs, tripping the girl up and sending her to the ground. The Heiress vaulted to her feet, ripping her arm free just in time to avoid another swipe from Robyn's spear.

Weiss raised her free hand, aiming at the prone girl. Thin dots of blue energy formed behind her, bolting forwards, streaking towards each of Robyn's limbs. Once they hit, Robyn found herself unable to move, trapped on the ground. Weiss flipped backwards, landing on a glyph and propelling herself above the girl. Forming another glyph in the air, Weiss tensed her legs and pushed off, straight for her opponent, the chamber of Myrtenaster spinning as she did so.

Once her blade connected, the ice dust vial activated, spreading across Robyn's form, trapping her on the combat floor. Her opponent struggled for a moment, but lay still as Weiss landed a blow across her face, soft enough to be gentle, but hard enough to eliminate the required amount of aura to have her unfit to continue battling.

'And that's the match,' Professor Goodwitch announced, the lights turning on across the arena hall once more as she strode towards the two opponents. 'Well done to the both of you, you performed exceptionally well.'

As Weiss dispelled the ice coating Robyn with a flick of her rapier, she couldn't help but notice the frown of disappointment on her opponent's face, which quickly vanished once she noticed Weiss' gaze was focused on her. Weiss held out a hand to Robyn, who graciously took it and was pulled to her feet. She looked up into Weiss' eyes, yet another reminder of how short she was.

'Now, if you two could please head back to your seats, are there any other volunteers who would like to have a match?' Goodwitch continued, turning to face the rest of the students.

'You fought well,' Weiss said, a strange look of appreciation on her face.

'Thanks,' Robyn replied. 'You too.'

And with that, the two separated and headed back to their own teams, each leaving their encounter with a newfound respect for the other.

'I didn't realise you were going to be that soft on her,' Charlie said as she sat down beside him, eyes on the arena as Jaune and Cardin made their way to the arena floor. Robyn simply rolled her eyes at her brother and gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder.

* * *

'So! There we were, in the middle night…' Nora begun telling, eyes narrowed intensely as she stared at everyone at the table.

'It was day,' Ren interjected, receiving no response from Nora.

'We were surrounded by Ursai…' Nora said, dragging out the Grimm name for emphasis.

'They were Beowolves.'

'Dozens of them!' Nora exclaimed, jumping onto the table, knocking over Charlie's glass of milk, to which he frowned at.

'Two of them.'

'But they were no match for us… And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!' Nora concluded, raising a triumphant fist into the air, drawing a raised eyebrow from a few of the other students, and a chuckle from Hannah as Robyn tried to wipe up her brother's spilt milk.

'She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now,' Ren added, sipping on his coffee.

'How do you know so much about it then?' Misty asked, leaning forwards to the stoic boy, dragging her plate back towards her after Nora had accidentally moved it by jumping on the table.

'Are you kidding? I've been hearing this story evolve every day,' Ren said, resting his coffee cup in his hand.

'Jaune? Are you okay?' Pyrrha's voice cut across the table, causing everybody to turn and face the blonde leader, who turned to the rest of them confusedly.

'Huh? Me? Oh, yeah, I'm fine! Why?' he stuttered unconvincingly.

'It's just that you seem a little… not okay…' Ruby answered.

Jaune stuttered under his breath as his eyes darted around the rest of the table. 'Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look!' Jaune then proceeded to raise a thumb and put the most nervous smile on his face, an equally nervous laugh emanating from him.

His gaze soon shifted to something behind the group, which caused them all the turn to look at whatever had grabbed his attention. They saw all of Team Cardinal sitting around a brunette girl with long brown bunny ears, and from the looks of it, she wasn't too happy with them being around her as they mocked her for her faunus heritage.

'That's it, isn't it?' Hannah asked, eyes narrowed at the four boys, fists clenched on the table.

'What's it?' Jaune asked.

'Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the start of the semester!' Pyrrha pieced together. 'He's what's got you all worked up, isn't he?'

'Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah… he just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!' Jaune lied.

'He's a bully, Jaune,' Misty said, through a mouthful of food.

'Oh please! Name one time he's 'bullied me'.' Jaune said, making air quotes with his fingers.

'How about all the times he knocks all of your books out of your hands when you're walking to class?' Blake replied, no longer reading her book, eyes narrowed at the scene on the other side of the cafeteria.

'It's just a running gag!' Jaune said. 'We both know it's just for laughs!'

'How about when he trapped you in that doorway with your own shield?' Hannah asked, eyes on Robyn who was laughing at Charlie's new milk moustache.

'That thing's faulty anyway,' Jaune said meekly. 'It might've gone off by itself anyway.'

'When he tripped you up and you fell down an entire flight of stairs?' Nora asked, rocking unsteadily on the bench she was seated at.

'In his defence, I didn't tie my shoes very well that morning!' Jaune answered.

'What about the rocket locker incident?' Charlie asked, wiping the milk moustache off of his upper lip.

'I didn't land that far from the school!' Jaune replied, attempting to laugh it off.

'Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask,' Pyrrha said, placing a hand on Jaune's arm.

'Oooh!' Nora exclaimed, jumping onto the bench seat, bread stick in her hands. 'We'll break his legs!' To which she proceeded to give them an example by snapping the bread stick in half.

'Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me! He's a jerk to everyone!'

At which point, the laughing behind them grew louder, and a shriek of pain accompanied them. 'Ow! That hurts! Please stop!'

Hannah slammed a fist down on the table, her usually bright eyes appearing much darker. 'That's it!'

The fox faunus bolted from her seat towards the four boys as they tugged at the girl's ears, still laughing, unaware of the world of pain that they were about to enter.

'You may want to go handle that brother,' Robyn whispered into Charlie's ear as he finished off his fourth glass of milk.

'I know, I know,' Charlie replied, standing up and moving after his teammate, whose fists were clenched so tightly that her aura had flared up to stop her fingernails from cutting into her skin.

'Hey!' Hannah called out, causing the four adolescents to stop what they were doing. 'Let her go!'

'Pfft, look guys, it's another freak,' Cardin spat at Hannah, chuckling as he tugged once more on the girl's ears then letting her go. The rest of his team crowded around the girl to prevent her from leaving as Cardin stood up against Hannah.

Charlie was already quite tall, standing well above any of his friends, even Jaune, but Cardin was on another level, towering another few inches above even Charlie. His big, chunky armour only served to make him appear even bigger than he already was. This didn't faze Hannah at all however, who stood up against him, nearly a whole foot shorter than the bully, her eyes glaring up at him.

'What do you want bitch?' Cardin spat in her face, smirking in her face.

Charlie reached forwards and grabbed Hannah's fist, struggling to keep it back. He needed all of his strength to move her behind him, stopping her from caving in Cardin' face right then and there.

'Nothing! Nothing at all!' Charlie said, hand still clasped around Hannah's arm, the other on her shoulder to hold her back. 'We were just heading out actually.'

Cardin grunted at him, turning away from the two. Charlie spun on the spot and started to push Hannah in the opposite direction. She allowed him to direct her for a few steps, and then Cardin spoke again.

'Good, got to keep dogs under check, am I right guys?'

Hannah halted in place, and no matter how much force Charlie pushed with, he couldn't get her to move. She turned her head, brown eyes meeting his own pair of smoldering red ones.

'Charlie,' she stated, voice laced with anger.

'Yes, Hannah?' Charlie asked with a hint of fear.

'Duck.'

'Crap.'

Charlie bent his knees and arched backwards as Hannah's fist spun right through where he had been standing, flying past his face, straight towards the back of Cardin's head. Hannah jumped lightly into the air, placing one foot on Charlie's leg to get herself some more height, now hanging in the air above even Cardin. With a loud crack, her fist connected with the back of his skull, sending him face first into a plate of food on the table.

All conversation in the hall stopped suddenly as everyone turned to locate the source of the sound. Cardin rose from the plate of food, spitting out peas and blowing mashed potatoes from his nose. He slowly turned to face Hannah, who Charlie quickly rushed to her side as the rest of Team Cardinal gathered around their leader, even though he knew she could easily take all four of them. As they began to stare each other down, the bunny eared faunus ducked away from the confrontation, heading into the crowd of students who were gathering to watch.

Cardin took the first move, swinging once at Hannah, who ducked out of the way, throwing her own punch into his gut. The strike barely affected Cardin, whose punch continued forwards, straight towards Robyn, who had darted over as soon as Hannah threw the first punch. She took hold of Cardin's fist before it reached her torso, leaping into the air and wrapping her legs around Cardin's arm, angling downwards to the ground. With the sudden extra weight at the end of his arm, Cardin stumbled forwards, falling face first to the hard floor of the hall. Once both herself and Cardin had hit the floor, Robyn unwrapped her legs, pushing herself into an upright position, spinning to look for Hannah.

Hannah had charged forwards, blocking a punch from Russell, retaliating with a fist to his face. She swept his legs from beneath him and delivering another kick to his side, lifting him into the air with force. Charlie charged forwards from where he had been standing, drop kicking the airborne student into the other two members of Team Cardinal, who had been standing behind their blue haired teammate. Dove managed to duck out of the way of Russell, but Sky was unable to avoid the incoming boy, tumbling backwards over the table alongside his teammate, food flying into the air.

Hannah charged forwards towards Dove, who raised his fists to the girl, prepared to fight. Once she was close enough, he swung a punch at her face, which passed completely through her. Hannah leapt into the air, spinning as she did, her entire body passing straight through Dove's. Her hands wrapped around his throat, and her feet connected with the table beneath her. She pulled against the boy's neck, slamming him into the table, where another eruption of food began to cover other nearby students who were watching.

At this point, most of the students in the cafeteria had gathered to watch the spectacle, most of them cheering on, encouraging the fight to continue. Others were standing in the side-lines, rolling their eyes at the mess before them, or simply refusing to acknowledge the unorthodox altercation at all.

Cardin got back to his feet, preparing to throw a punch at Charlie, whose back was currently turned. As he moved to throw his punch, his arm found resistance. Turning his head ever so slight, he saw Misty's arm wrapped around his own, a grin on her face. He felt her spare palm land against his shoulder, and she pulled him to the side, leg hooked around his foot, shoving him to the ground, arm twisted behind his back.

Sky and Russell leapt onto the table beside Hannah, who still had Dove pinned to the table. Sky started to make a roundhouse kick to Hannah's head, whilst Russell ducked down, supporting himself up with both arms, he kicked out with both legs against Hannah's side.

Russell's attack carried on straight through Hannah's form, causing him to continue moving forwards, falling against the table on his back, whilst Sky's kick was blocked by Robyn's own leg, who had jumped up onto the table alongside her partner. Robyn lowered the leg she had blocked Sky's attack with to support herself, kicking out at the student with her other leg, hitting him in the hip and causing him to stumble backwards.

Russell scrambled to his feet, sweeping at Robyn's legs, missing as she leapt into the air to avoid the attack. Russell moved to Sky's side, the two of them moving into a defensive position as Robyn turned to face them.

Sky threw a punch at Robyn, who deflected it to the side with a flick of her arm. She whipped the same arm back in front of her, parrying Russell's own punch, retaliating with a quick punch to the chest. Robyn dodged backwards as Sky kicked forwards, narrowly avoiding the attack before she kicked out at Sky's knee, causing it to buckle under the force of the attack. The girl then placed her hands on Sky's shoulders, vaulting over the student and kicking out at Russell, who barely managed to avoid the attack.

Hannah rolled away as Dove struggled against her grip, grabbing a plate off of the floor and Frisbee throwing it into his face, knocking him over once more as he attempted to stand up. As Cardin managed to roll over, escaping from Misty's grip, Dove fell backwards onto Cardin's chest, knocking the wind from him.

Dove stumbled back to his feet before he rushed at Charlie, sending a flurry of punches at his face, which he either managed to dodge or deflect. Charlie dodged to the side, wrapping one arm around one of Dove's, pulling it to the side in his grasp, and he threw a punch into the boy's face, whose head recoiled from the shock, eyes closed. Charlie let go of Dove's arm, placing his hands against Dove's shoulder and chest, pushing hard, throwing him into the seating at the side of the table.

Without even having to turn, Charlie heard Sky letting out a cry of attack before Robyn darted across the table, wrapping her legs around Sky's torso, twisting in the air and throwing Sky off of the table, crashing into a nearby bench, which snapped from the impact.

'You're welcome,' Robyn said, glaring at her brother.

Charlie began to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of the entryway double doors slamming open, bouncing against the stone walls. All heads turned to the entrance, and many students went scampering off when they saw Professor Goodwitch storming in. If looks could kill, Charlie would be dead on the floor by now.

Neither members of either Team Cardinal or Team Chrome dared to move as Goodwitch marched up to them all, the nearby students parting to form a path for her. She stopped before the eight of them, narrowed eyes darting around, glaring at all of them.

'They did it,' Misty said, pointing at Team Cardinal.

* * *

Half an hour later, and both teams Cardinal and Chrome had been to Goodwitch's office, scolded quite heavily, but managed to avoid being given detention due to the silver tongues possessed by both of the twins.

After being dismissed by the angry professor, both teams separated to head to their next classes, of which should be starting in the next few minutes. Charlie and the rest of his team set off in the direction of Professor Port's classroom, where according to their latest class, they would be learning about a new type of Grimm, and hopefully getting a bit of practical work done as well.

Unfortunately, Professor Port's class didn't live up to the expectation, as instead of his promised exciting lesson, it turned out to instead be another range of tales from his youth.

Robyn sidled slightly closer to Hannah, eyes still hard and fists tightly clenched, as Professor Port began to imitate a wrestling match between himself and an Ursa, rolling around on the ground and occasionally throwing punches into the air, narrating the entire battle.

'I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Cardin can be a massive asshole,' Robyn whispered into Hannah's ear.

'It's not your fault,' Hannah replied without turning to face her partner.

'I know. I just can't help but notice how angry you are about this whole situation. I completely understand it, and your feelings are definitely justified, especially with what he said to you. I just wish that there was more I could do to help out,' Robyn answered, eyes never leaving Hannah's own pair, waiting for her partner to turn and face her.

Hannah finally turned her head to face Robyn, eyes still hard, but slightly softer than before. 'The fact that you were so quick to stand against them with me was good enough.'

Robyn's heart rose quickly at her partner's words. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Hannah beat her too it.

'We've been partners for long enough now that I've noticed one thing about you, you aren't really all that strong,' Hannah said, not averting her gaze from Robyn's own. 'Your weapon is based around ranged combat, and although you do have the typical close combat shifting to the spear, you don't use it as a typical melee weapon, especially if your enemy is a lot stronger than yourself.'

'Although, you seemed to be able to hold your own against Russel and Sky earlier,' Hannah taunted, but with a small smile accompanying it.

'Yeah, well, I can also attribute that to the unstable table surface he was on,' Robyn replied.

The two partners let out a quiet chuckle at that, glancing up at their teacher, who had not noticed their conversation yet, as he was standing by the Ursa diagram at the front of the classroom, going over weak spots, a topic he had gone over a few days ago.

'I'm glad that you had my back today,' Hannah smiled.

'Of course,' Robyn replied. 'I'll make sure I'm there for you Hannah, no matter what.'

'Thank you,' Hannah said, leaning over and giving Robyn a small hug, causing the girl to profusely blush, eyes darting around the room to see if anyone was looking. Nobody appeared to be watching, until her eyes met a pair of red ones. Damn her brother, she should know by now that he always saw everything…

* * *

'You sure you're up for this?' Yang asked Misty, the two of them crouching behind a flight of stairs leading up to the higher floors of the Eastern dormitory building.

'Hell yes,' Misty nodded, rubbing her hands together maniacally. 'Just cause we kicked their asses today, doesn't mean I don't want to do something else to embarrass them!'

'Good!' Yang said in reply, glancing around before pulling out a pair of big duffel bags from a compartment beneath the staircase, handing one of them to Misty, who slung it over her shoulder, checking for any students, particularly any of them from Team Cardinal, then making her way upstairs, Yang following closely behind her.

Team Cardinal was on the highest floor of the building, not including the roof. It took them nearly a minute just to climb the flight of stairs to get there. Once they reached the top floor, Misty opened the door leading from the stairwell into the accommodation halls, poked her head into the corridor, checking to see if anybody was around. Thankfully, the hallway was empty. She turned to face Yang, then jerked her head sideways, letting her partner in crime know it was safe to go.

Misty crept down the hallway towards Cardinal's dorm room, silently dropping her back to the floor, whipping out a set of lock picks and began working on the door, as Yang outfitted a simple tripwire system to the door from the stairwell which would set off an airhorn if opened. As Misty worked her way through the tumblers in the lock, Yang dashed to the other end of the hall, fitting the same early warning system to the doors at the other end of the hallway, before rushing back to her partner, who was still fiddling with the lock.

'You sure you know how to do that?' Yang asked impatiently, glancing up and down the hallway, keeping an eye out for any other students.

'Yang, please. Both of my parents work as PI's, I've learnt many things from them over the years. It just so happens that breaking into places I'm not supposed to be is one of those things.'

The lock clicked, and with a grin towards the blonde, Misty twisted the handle, opening the door. 'After you, mighty mastermind.'

Yang sauntered into the dorm room, Misty picking up the duffel bag and creeping in after her, slowly closing the door behind herself. Yang and Misty ripped open their duffel bags, grabbing out various tools they had brought to sabotage Team Cardinal's bedroom.

Once their job was completed, the two rushed to either ends of the hallway, destructing their alarm systems, rushing down their respective staircases and meeting up out the front of the building, ducking to the side as their victims began to make their way to their dorm room from the training halls, chuckling and laughing at each other.

They dropped off the duffel bags in Team Chrome's dorm room, where Ruby wouldn't be able to get back her wakeup whistle, which Yang had also stolen and hidden inside one of the bags.

'I think that this is going to have to be a recurring thing for the two of us,' Yang said, giving her partner in crime a high-five after they had hidden the duffel bags beneath Misty's bed.

'Definitely, a little less breaking and entering though,' Misty smiled, until she saw Charlie standing in the doorway, eyebrows raised as he stared at the two of them.

'What's this I'm hearing about breaking and entering?' he asked, causing Yang to jump.

'Where did you come from?' the blonde asked, having not heard the door open.

'This is where I sleep, remember?'

'Oh, right,' Yang replied, rubbing her hand against the back of her head, causing her mane of hair to dance across her back.

'So, breaking and entering, what is that about?' Charlie asked once more.

'Let's put it this way,' Misty said, sitting down on her bed. 'The less you know, the better.'

Charlie rolled his eyes, stepping into the room and throwing a pile of books onto his desk, causing it to sag slightly under their weight.

'That's a lot of study you're doing there,' Misty said in shock, counting the number of books he had thrown down. 'When are you going to have the time to read all of those?'

'They aren't all for me, some of them are for the rest of you,' Charlie said, smiling at his partner and picking up two handfuls of books. 'These ones are for you, for example.'

Misty ungratefully took the books from her leader, reading some of their titles. 'And why are you giving me, A History of Dust?'

'Because some of the stuff in there relates quite well to the report you're writing for Doctor Oobleck,' Charlie replied with a grin, walking out of the dorm room.

'How do you know what my report is about?' Misty asked, glancing at her desk, where piles of work were strewn across the surface, not recently touched either.

Charlie turned back to face her with a smile. 'After spending the last few weeks with me, do you really need to ask how I know things?'

'Let me guess,' Yang said with a smirk. 'You know everything that happens, ever?'

'Well, I can only assume that Cardin and his friends have already run into your dorm room prank?' Charlie replied with a grin, leaving the room. 'Dinner will be starting soon, I'll see you there!'

Yang looked back to Misty, confusion written across her face. 'How does he…?'

Misty raised her hands in the air, shrugging her shoulders. 'At this point, it's not even worth asking.'

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4: A Leader

**Last chapter of the initial chapter posting. Hopefully I've managed to gather interest from some of you guys? Right? Hahahah...**

 **I'll let you get onto reading now...**

* * *

\- Chapter Four -

\- A Leader -

Jaune darted forwards, shield raised, taking cover behind a large rock as a hail of large black feathers flew towards him. The projectiles shattered across the stone, others embedding themselves in the ground around Jaune.

Nora ducked around another rock further behind Jaune and fired grenades into the air at the giant Nevermore, explosive pink clouds erupting around the Grimm. It screeched at the impacts, beating its wings to make its way higher into the air and out of the range of Nora's grenades.

'We need to get it closer to the ground!' Jaune called out, eyes darting around the battlefield, looking for a way to ground the giant bird. A mountain to their right was taller than anything else surrounding Team Juniper, and although it was still quite small, it was their best shot.

'Nora! Get to the top of the mountain! We need to get it grounded!' Jaune called out, pointing his sword towards the top of the rocks. Nora gave an energetic reply and nodded, jumping up the side of the mountain, propelling herself forwards with her grenades to get there faster.

'Pyrrha, follow her!' Jaune ordered his partner. 'Once you're at the top, boost her up to it!'

Pyrrha nodded in response, chasing after Nora. Once she reached her energetic teammate, Pyrrha readied herself into a braced stance with her shield raised before her, aimed towards the Nevermore, which was coming along for another sweep towards the two girls.

Nora leapt backwards, planting her feet on Pyrrha's shield, launching herself forwards with a push, as well as a well-timed grenade to propel herself forwards faster. Mid-air, Nora shifted her grenade launcher into its hammer form, bringing it around for a slam against the unsuspecting Grimm's beak.

A pink explosion erupted around the Nevermore's head, which screeched in response. Nora flipped through the air, aiming her hammer towards the joint between the Nevermore's back and wing. A loud crack resounded through the air, and the Grimm began to fall to the ground. Just before it landed, it managed to bring its legs beneath its body, preventing it from diving head first into the ground.

'Ren, go for the legs!' Jaune shouted, darting towards the legs alongside his silent teammate, sword raised high in the air. The Nevermore flapped its one good wing, creating a wall of wind which pushed the two boys over, knocking them onto their backs.

Bullets bounced off of the Nevermore's hide as Pyrrha fired at the Grimm with her rifle. She leapt off of the mountain, rifle shifting into a spear mid-air, and threw it at the Grimm's eye, firing it forwards. Unfortunately, Nora had leapt back to the Nevermore's head, slamming Magnhild into its crown, forcing its head down, dropping Nora into Milo's trajectory. The spear hit Nora's side, pushing her off of the monster.

'Sorry!' Pyrrha shouted from the top of the mountain, as Nora landed on the ground.

'What's our next move?' Ren asked, firing his weapons at the Nevermore, his bullets bouncing off of its hide just like Pyrrha's. Jaune stuttered, no idea what to do next. Whilst he was trying to come up with a plan, the Nevermore charged forwards and slammed its head into Ren and Jaune, sending them tumbling backwards across the field, each of them hitting their own fair share of rocks.

The Nevermore shrieked at the two boys as they struggled to their feet, then froze. The scenery around the four lost its textures, soon followed by that of the Grimm. The setting around them vanished along with the Grimm and was replaced by the walls of the leaders training hall, Professor Ozpin walking towards the four students.

'An admirable attempt, Mr Arc,' he said, eyes lowered towards the scroll in his hand. 'Your plan had appeal to it, however, as a leader, you must learn to think several steps in advance, prepared to make the next action before it is time to take it.'

'I understand Professor,' Jaune said, sheathing his sword, albeit with a slight level of disappointment.

'Until our next lesson, I want all of you to speak with your teams, learn more about them so you can create techniques with them that can account for any situation,' Professor Ozpin said, turning to the rest of the team leaders who were sitting in the stands, watching Jaune's tactical performance. 'Although the Vytal Tournament is still a few months away, it would be best for you to be able to work alongside your teammates flawlessly. I want you to work on this between now and our next class, as the next time we meet we will be delving into more competitive tactical exercises. Class dismissed.'

The students began to file out of the training hall, Jaune lagging behind the rest as he dejectedly stared at the ground, until he was pulled aside by Cardin. Ever since he had learnt about Jaune's fake transcripts, Jaune had been stuck with himself wrapped around Cardin's finger, unable to do anything without the say so of Cardin himself.

Once Jaune arrived in the cafeteria for dinner, once again following Cardin to sit with his team, he glanced over to the rest of his team, where Pyrrha had taken notice of his arrival, eyes filled with disappointment.

Even though she was irritated at him after their argument on the dormitory rooftop, not to mention his sudden friendship with Cardin, Jaune was still her leader and there was no denying how she felt for him.

He would barely speak to them any more however. Today was the first time that Jaune had actually interacted with the rest of his team for the last few weeks. When Pyrrha woke in the mornings, Jaune was already gone, and he only returned to their dormitory room in the evening once they had all fallen asleep.

Pyrrha made her way to lunch alongside Nora and Ren, who both noticed the look of sadness on her face whenever she noticed Jaune sitting alongside Cardin. The rest of their friends however, did not notice her expression, simply sitting at the table and beginning their daily ritual of weird conversations during their lunch hour.

'I'm just saying, one million lien is a lot of money, why wouldn't you take it?' Misty asked.

'Because I would prefer to stay hygienic,' Blake replied. 'One million lien isn't going to be enough to make up for not showering or bathing for the rest of my life.'

'Alright, new topic,' Weiss interrupted, fed up with the stupid hypothetical questions Misty had been asking them all morning. 'Our field trip into Forever Fall is tomorrow, so I'm hoping that everyone is prepared for that.'

'You know it Weiss!' Ruby exclaimed, spraying a mouthful of food across the table. 'I've got alarms set for us to wake up in the morning, and lots of food packed for the day!'

'Since when did you have time to do that?' Yang asked her little sister.

'You just leave the preparation to me, my dear sister,' Ruby slyly replied.

'You should listen to her Yang,' Robyn replied between mouthfuls of food. 'It's so much easier when someone else can take care of things for you.'

'Does Charlie just do all of your homework for you or something?' Yang teased.

'No, he just makes sure we have it all done as soon as possible,' Hannah answered. 'As soon as we get anything, we all work on getting it done really quickly. That's why we're always out doing stuff, cause we have so much free time that way.'

'Speaking of, where is Charlie?' Pyrrha asked, looking up and down the table, but not seeing team CHRM's leader.

'He said he wasn't that hungry, so he was going to work on his homework from leader's class instead,' Ruby answered.

'Should've asked you to follow him,' Robyn chuckled. 'He never does that homework in our dorm room, I've been meaning to try and find out where he's been hiding when he does that.'

'There's probably a reason why he isn't telling us where he goes,' Blake said. 'If he wanted you to know, he would have told you. He probably just wants a bit of time to himself if he really is taking care of all of you so much.'

'Once again, words of wisdom worth listening to,' Ren agreed, taking a sip from his drink, leaving it resting on his palm.

'Getting back on topic,' Weiss said, diverting the conversation away from Charlie. 'Pyrrha, is your team ready for the trip tomorrow?'

All eyes turned to Pyrrha, who had unofficially become the leader of team JNPR as soon as Jaune stopped paying so much attention to them.

'Well, we still have a few more reports to write up before we go tomorrow,' Pyrrha replied. 'Other than that, we are nearly ready for the trip tomorrow.'

'And what about Jaune?' Hannah asked, receiving another look of sadness from the warrior girl which nobody at the table missed.

'I'm sure that Jaune will be there,' Pyrrha replied coldly, effectively ending their talk about Jaune.

As their conversation switched back to more hypothetical questions from Misty, and a few puns from Yang, both of which Weiss strongly opposed, Robyn couldn't help but notice that a smile never graced Pyrrha's face for the rest of the evening.

* * *

After another evening spent with Cardin, Jaune finally made his way back to his dorm room, tired from doing all of team CDNL's work. As he pulled his keys from his pocket, he heard his teammates talking to each other behind the door. Instead of opening the door, he pressed his ear against the wooden door to hear what they were saying.

'Do you think Jaune will be back earlier tonight?' he heard Nora asked, barely making out her words through the sound of her bouncing up and down on her bed. Or, at least that's what it sounded like.

'He's become rather scarce since he started fraternizing with Cardin,' Ren's voice said, barely audible over Nora's bed bouncing.

'It's really weird. He should know we have that field trip tomorrow. We need our rest!' Nora exclaimed, her voice quickly followed by the sound of straining bed springs as she most likely made a heavy landing on it.

'I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing,' Pyrrha's voice said, laced with anger.

Jaune sighed, hanging his head, nearly banging it against the door but deciding against it. If only the rooftop he and Pyrrha had been talking on wasn't directly above Cardin' bedroom, he would never be in this situation. Well, Pyrrha might still be angry at him, but at least he wouldn't be wrapped around Cardin's finger.

'Hey Jaune!' a high-pitched voice said from behind Jaune, startling the blonde leader. 'Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out?'

'Huh? Oh, uh, nope!' Jaune stuttered, holding up his keys for Ruby to see.

'Ah, so, where've you been?' Ruby asked, folding her arms behind her and scratching the carpet with her bare foot.

'I, uh…' Jaune started, attempting to come up with an acceptable answer, but unable to do so. 'I messed up Ruby. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, I can't even face Pyrrha, let alone talk to her. Even if I could, I don't think she would want to.'

Jaune paused for a moment, sighing and leaning against the wall beside the door to his room, slowly sliding down it to the floor. 'I'm starting to think that coming to this school was a bad idea. I'm a failure.'

'Nope!'

Jaune looked up at Ruby, who was staring at him with a cheerful smile. 'Nope?'

'Nope!' Ruby repeated. 'You're a leader now Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure.'

'But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?' Jaune asked.

'Nope!' Ruby replied, sliding down the wall to sit beside him.

'You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff,' Jaune chuckled.

'Nope!' Ruby answered, poking her tongue out at Jaune. 'Listen Jaune, you may have been a failure when you were a kid, and you might have been a failure the first day we met! But you can't be one now. Do you know why?'

Jaune turned his head to face the younger leader. 'Why?'

'Because it's not just about you anymore Jaune. You've got a team to look after now, we both do! If we fail, then we'll just end up bringing them both down with us,' Ruby explained, clambering back to her feet in a very ungraceful manner. 'We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader Jaune, and I think that can be you.'

'Huh, thanks Ruby,' Jaune said, smiling at the young girl as she moved back to her dorm room.

'No worries,' Ruby smiled, waving at her friend. 'Have a good night Jaune!'

'Good night Ruby,' Jaune replied, smiling as he made his way to his feet. He pulled his keys from his pocket, preparing to open the door to his room when his scroll started beeping. Pulling it out from his pocket, he saw that he had a voice message from Cardin. Sighing, Jaune tapped the scroll screen to play the message.

'Hey Jaune!' Cardin said, his voice immediately irritating Jaune. 'I know you're probably busy with that Dust Project I gave you, but, I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a box of Rapier Wasps, and make sure that they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up Jauney-boy!'

Jaune sighed as the message ended, placing his scroll back in his pocket along with his keys, making his way out of the dormitories. Hopefully there would still be a ship heading out of Beacon into Vale, and hopefully there would also be one coming back. Jaune pushed open the main doors to the dormitories, only to be scared for the second time that night as someone else unexpectedly greeted him.

'Hi Jaune.'

'AH!' Jaune screamed, jumping in the air and turning to face the source of noise. Before him stood Charlie, slightly startled from Jaune's reaction. 'Man, why does everyone have to be so sneaky!'

'Uh, sorry?' Charlie said in reply.

'No worries man,' Jaune said, unsure of how to proceed.

'So, where are you off to at such a late hour?' Charlie asked. 'We have our trip to Forever Fall tomorrow, you should be resting.'

'Resting like you are right now?' Jaune remarked, bringing a smile to Charlie's face.

'Touché.'

'I just have a few things to get for some homework,' Jaune lied, and pretty convincingly if he may say so himself. 'I'll be back before it's too late.'

'Alright then,' Charlie said, waving him off. 'Have a good night Jaune.'

Jaune nodded in response, making it a few steps before Charlie called out to him once again.

'Jaune?'

'Yeah?'

'I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of not being in control of my own life,' Charlie hinted, eyes showing a bit of worry in them. 'When things aren't going your way, you have to remember that it's your life, not somebody else's, and you can't be afraid to take the reins every now and then to bring it back on track to where you want it to be.'

Charlie dipped his head slightly, smouldering red eyes meeting with Jaune's own pair of blue irises, causing Jaune to understand what he was trying to tell him. Jaune nodded in response, causing a smile to appear across Charlie's face. 'Goodnight, Jaune. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Yeah, goodnight Charlie,' Jaune replied as his friend made his way into the dormitories. Jaune stood there for a moment, then sighed once more, making his way towards the docks to take a ship into Vale.

* * *

The next day, all first-year students met at the Beacon docks in the middle of the day, where Professor Goodwitch was waiting to chaperone their trip into the Forever Fall. The large transport ship floated over the edge of the cliff as the various students made their way on board, taking their seats and excitedly talking amongst each other as they waited for the rest of the students to arrive.

Once all students had arrived at the docks and taken their seats, Professor Goodwitch made her way onto the airship with the rest of the students, taking a seat at the front of the airship as it took to the air, coasting across the lake beneath the cliffs of Beacon, towards the red sea of trees which signified the forest of Forever Fall.

'Ruby!' Yang exclaimed, snatching her bag from Ruby's hands. 'Those cookies are for lunch when we're in the forest!'

Ruby looked at her sister, cookies crumbs around her mouth and across her clothing, eyes widened like those of a puppy. 'But Yaaaaang!'

'No, Ruby!' Yang said, raising her hand in front of her sister's face, ending the conversation. Ruby pouted, slouching back into her seat. As Yang stowed her bag beneath her seat, Charlie leant forwards besides Ruby, a finger raised to his mouth to tell her to be quiet, and the plastic bag of cookies which were originally in Yang's bag now in his hand, outstretched and offered to the young leader. Her silver eyes lit up in happiness, gratefully taking the bag from him and stowing it inside her cloak.

'Thank you!' she whispered, reaching inside her cloak and nibbling on a piece of a cookie. Charlie simply smiled in response, moving back to his seat where his sister was shaking her head at him.

The rest of the flight was spent mostly in silence as the ship made its way towards the red forest of Forever Fall. While most of the students sat patiently in their seats, Jaune was standing near the bin at the rear of the ship, ready for when his motion sickness brought out the, well, sickness. The rest of his team sat in their own seats, and although none of them went over to comfort him, Pyrrha was keeping an eye on her partner with a look of sadness.

After landing at a dock near the outskirts of Forever Fall, Professor Goodwitch led the students into the forest, many of whom were staring at the wondrous scenery around them. Professor Goodwitch turned her head to look at her students, smirking at their looks of wonder as they observed the forest around them. 'Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so.'

The professor stopped in the middle of a clearing, bringing the rest of the students to a stop. There was a loud clattering sound as Jaune collided with the back of Cardin, nearly dropping the glass jars across the ground.

'Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun!'

The various students began to separate into their own teams, the exception being Jaune who headed away alongside Cardin. Charlie and the rest of his team headed further into the forest alongside Team RWBY and part of Team JNPR. The group found themselves their own clearing after a few minutes of walking, setting down the various bits of equipment they had been carrying.

'Alright team!' Ruby exclaimed happily. 'We've got a few hours before we need to be heading back, so let's make the most of it while we're here!'

'By doing what?' Weiss asked, brushing off her white skirt, which already had a red tinge to it from the nature around them.

'Our work, duh!' Yang said, lifting a glass jar in the air, marching off to find a tree thick enough to extract some sap from. 'Come on Blake! I've heard this stuff tastes really good!'

Blake rolled her eyes in response, but followed her partner anyway as Nora's eyes widened and she bounced after the two, eager to have a taste of the tree sap. Ren chased after his friend, likely to try and keep her out of trouble, something which seemed to find Nora quite frequently.

'So, where are we off to, my fearless leader?' Misty asked, slapping Charlie's shoulder, receiving a glare in return.

'Why don't you start by finding us a tree?' Charlie retorted with a smirk, lobbing a jar towards Misty, who barely caught it before it hit the ground. 'We'll follow your lead this time.'

Misty rolled her eyes, marching off in a different direction from their friends, the rest of Team CHRM following behind her. Several times along their trek through the forest they thought they had found a tree thick enough to have extractable sap which had the right consistency for Professor Peach's assignment, but they either turned out to be too small to extract anything, or weren't old enough to have the right kind of sap they were after. Nearly half an hour had passed and they still hadn't found the right tree, which was leading to a bit of annoyance from some of the team.

'Ugh, why did we let Misty lead us again?' Robyn complained, head lolled back on her shoulders, staring up at the sky as they walked through the red trees. 'She has enough trouble finding her clothes in our dorm room, let alone the right tree to use!'

'Hey! That was one time!' Misty said protectively. 'And it wasn't really even my fault that I couldn't find them in the first place!'

'Yeah, cause you left them in someone else's room and came back without them because you were too drunk to remember them,' Hannah giggled, giving Robyn a friendly high-five as they celebrated their victory once Misty's cheeks flushed red.

'Well, if it's taking so long, why doesn't our fearless leader just take over!?' Misty snapped, glaring at Charlie, who was strolling along behind the group, hands clasped behind his back.

'Because I'm having far too much fun right now,' he replied, earning Misty's glass jar to be thrown at his head, an attack which he easily snatched out of the air. 'But if you insist, I will take over as soon as you wish.'

'Finally! Now can you find us a tree so we can get back to Goodwitch on ti- shit!' Robyn shouted as her foot caught something metal beneath the leaves of the forest and tumbled to the ground, earning a roar of laughter from the rest of the team. Grumbling to herself, she graciously took Hannah's' hand to get back onto her feet, although she didn't miss the smirk on her partner's face.

She turned back to look at whatever it was that had tripped her up, seeing a metallic limb now in the open, seeing as she had managed to knock most of the leaves off of it during her fall. Crouching down, she brushed away more of the leaves until an entire robotic body was revealed, with the Schnee emblem emblazoned across its chest.

'Woah! Charlie, come look at this!' Robyn said, shuffling over slightly as her brother made his way to her side, a frown on his face as he recognised the droid. However, his eyes were not focused on the emblem across its chest, but the head which was separated from the rest of its body, nowhere to be seen.

'We should probably tell Weiss about this,' Misty said, pulling out her scroll to call the heiress, not waiting for any agreement from the rest of her team.

'Where did it come from?' Hannah asked. 'It's not like this is area is heavily populated with Grimm, and I can't imagine there are too many civilians around to protect.'

'It isn't that kind of a droid,' Robyn replied. 'This make and model are specifically made as, escort bots, I guess you would call it. They get stuck on transport ships and the like to keep cargo safe from attack. That still doesn't explain how it got out here though.'

'That would though,' Charlie stated, pointing to a large railway track a reasonable distance from them, hidden behind various clusters of trees. 'There was a huge train robbery from the Schnee's several months back, I remember Father talking about it. None of the crew were harmed, but several millions Lien's worth of dust was stolen, and a couple hundred-thousands worth were lost from the android security force which was taken down by the infiltrators.'

Misty nodded and relayed the information to Weiss through her scroll, informing the rest of the team that the heiress was on her way. It didn't take too long for Weiss to announce her arrival, hissing and grumbling as she struggled to make her way through the brush as leaves and twigs were constantly snagging on her dress. Alongside her was Ruby, who was holding Weiss' scroll forth as she tramped through the bushes, using the GPS system to find their friends. Yang and Blake made their way along behind the other two, the former looking noticeably nervous about the situation.

Realising they had stumbled across their destination, Team RWBY made their way towards Team CHRM, the eight of them standing in a circle around the destroyed android, which still lay fallen among the leaves of Forever Fall. Weiss studied the fallen robot briefly, before nodding in acceptance.

'Yes, that's one of ours,' she admitted, pulling out her scroll from the pocket in her skirt. 'I'll send a message to the SDC to let them know we've found it.'

A few of the others nodded in response, and began to make their way back towards where Team RWBY had come from once Yang mentioned they had found an entire clearing of trees which had the right sap they needed to get for Professor Peach. As they left the droid behind, Hannah noticed that Blake was still standing there, however instead of staring at the robot, she was staring off into the distance, towards the direction of the railway line which was hidden behind the trees.

The fox faunus hesitated, before making her way over and standing at Blake's side, easily noticing the tension in her body, which although already present, seemed to become even more apparent once Hannah was standing by her side.

'What's wrong?' Hannah asked, although she felt like she already knew what was bothering Blake.

'Hmm?' Blake mumbled, turning to face Hannah. 'Nothing, I'm fine.'

Hannah didn't need to hear the flutter in Blake's heartbeat with her enhanced hearing to know that the girl had just told a lie. However, she chose to ignore the girls lie, instead choosing to make her way after the rest of her friends, towards the direction Team RWBY had come from.

'Come on Blake!' Hannah called over her shoulder. 'I'd hate for you to get lost out here!' The fox faunus smirked as she heard the quiet girl chasing after her, shortly appearing at her side as the two made their way through the red trees.

It didn't take long for the eight of them to find their way to the clearing where both Teams RWBY and JNPR, well, most of team JNPR, had set up their gear and were currently trying to extract some sap samples for their teacher. Unfortunately, it seemed that each time they managed to extract a jar of the sap, Nora was immediately gulping it down, due to the apparent sweet taste of it.

With the extra hands around, the group managed to keep Nora distracted long enough to properly extract their samples of sap without the Valkyrie drinking it all. Not long after completing their task, a loud roar filled the air, setting them all on edge, reaching for their weapons, eyes scanning the treeline for the source of the sound.

'That sounded really close guys!' Robyn shouted, bow drawn back, pointed at the edges of the clearing.

'I don't see anything though,' Ren replied calmly, his weapons raised and at the ready.

'We should try to find the rest of the students,' Pyrrha instructed. 'If we all group up, we will all be safer.'

'Right, which way do we want to-' Yang started to say, before the sound of running reached her ears and she spun, gauntlets pointed towards the source of the noise.

Before them were three of the members of Team CRDL, each of them running for their lives, with fear in their eyes.

'Get out of here!' one of them yelled, waving his arms wildly. 'There's an Ursa!'

Misty grabbed his arm as he tried to run past them all, demanding an answer. 'Where is it?'

'Back there, it has Cardin!' Russel replied, tearing his arm free from her grip and continuing to run away.

'Jaune!' Pyrrha exclaimed in worry. 'He went with them!'

'Yang, Blake!' Ruby instructed. 'Go find Professor Goodwitch! She needs to know what's happening!'

'Robyn! Take the rest of the team and look for the other students,' Charlie told his sister. 'You need to make sure they're alright!'

'What about you?' Robyn asked as he darted off in the direction Russel had pointed in.

'I'm going after Jaune!' he said, before disappearing in a flash of black energy.

'You two go with Robyn,' Pyrrha ordered to the rest of her team. 'There may be some more Grimm nearby. If you stay in a larger group, you'll be safer.'

Ren and Nora nodded, taking off alongside the girls from Team CHRM. Pyrrha looked to Ruby and Weiss, who both nodded at the Spartan, taking off after Charlie. It didn't take them too long to come into another clearing, where they found Cardin laying on the ground, weapon cast aside, and an Ursa Major standing over him.

Unlike normal Ursa, the major was much larger in size, and in turn, the bone spikes riddled across its back were far larger in size, and more numerous than a usual Grimm. Its bright red eyes were filled with anger, as the three girls realised that it was currently attempting to kill the prone Cardin, however the combined effort of both Jaune and Charlie lifting the formers shield, were keeping the beasts claws at bay.

Weiss, readied her weapon to charge into the fray, but Pyrrha extended an arm before her, stopping the heiress in her tracks. She didn't say anything, but her eyes were trained on Jaune and full of hope.

Jaune and Charlie bent their knees, allowing the Ursa's claws to come even closer to Cardin, before they both pushed off from the ground, Charlie giving their thrust extra momentum with a quick clash of his two swords, and the Ursa was knocked backwards, away from the group.

Charlie turned to Jaune, who crouched slightly lower, raising his shield up as a step for his fellow leader. Charlie leapt into the air, blades at the ready as he slashed at the Grimm's face, an action which was not unnoticed by the girls who were standing at the side-lines of the fight. His blades raked harmlessly across the bone mask of the creature, which took this moment to swing at the airborne student with its paw, connecting with Charlies side, sending him across the clearing before crashing into a tree, snapping it in half and remaining motionless after he finished rolling.

Seeing his friend take the blow, Jaune tried to step up his game, swinging his sword at the creatures back leg, leaving a large gash near its knee, forcing the Grimm to the ground. Swinging his blade back around, he cut across the Ursa's chest, sending it reeling backwards. He jumped upwards, thrusting his swords towards his foe, but his blow was swatted aside by its giant paw. The second paw swung around, knocking Jaune to the side, but instead of laying still, he quickly got back to his feet, charging towards the Grimm once more.

He leapt into the air once more, sword at the ready for another swing, but the Ursa swung faster, hitting his legs and sending him tumbling along the ground. As he made his way to his feet once more, the Ursa began charging at him, intent on finishing off the blond. Jaune yelled in frustration, rushing towards the Grimm. As the two opponents neared each other, his sword raised in the air, he noticed the Grimm's paw extended to attack him once more. Allowing his instincts to take over, he lifted his arm into the air, then felt the sudden force exerted onto it as the Ursa raked its claws across his shield. Taking his opportunity, Jaune planted a foot into the ground and swung around, his blade passing clean through the neck of the Grimm, severing its head from its shoulder.

Standing still in amazement, the three girls watched on as Jaune moved to check on both Cardin and Charlie. While all three had a stunned look to them, both Pyrrha and Ruby's faces held hints of happiness for their friend. Weiss on the other hand was in utter confusion.

'Wait, did Jaune just…?' she asked, her gaze switching between the blond warrior, and the rapidly deteriorating corpse of the Ursa Major.

'I guess he's better than you thought Weiss,' Ruby giggled, turning on her heel to leave the clearing. 'Come on, we should head back so we can let everyone know that there's no more threat.'

It didn't take the girls long to make their way back to the clearing, where the rest of the students who had come on the trip were gathered, along with Professor Goodwitch, who looked ready to march into battle just to bring all the students back to Beacon.

After quickly explaining the situation to the woman, Goodwitch seemed to calm down almost immediately, however she was intent on leaving the area as soon as possible to avoid any further altercations with the Grimm. Not long afterwards, Jaune, Charlie and Cardin all turned up in the clearing, Jaune holding Charlie steady as the latter limped along beside the blond, a hand clasped to his head where a large cut ran along his forehead.

The group made their way back to the safe zone where they made their way back onto the transport ship which had brought them to the Forest. Jaune passed Charlie over to his twin sister, who grudgingly took him from the taller boy, struggling to help him to his seat.

'Next time, don't suck so much and get knocked out in the middle of a fight,' Robyn grumbled at him, pulling out a few medical supplies from the pouch in her leg and starting to fix up the cut across his forehead.

'I'll remember to do that,' Charlie laughed, before wincing as Robyn started cleaning dirt from the cut.

'How did you even manage to do this?' Robyn asked, eyes not moving from the injury. 'Your semblance literally gives the ability to avoid everything that could possibly happen to you.'

'I managed to do this, because it turns out that getting thrown face-first into a tree doesn't really do much for your aura, or your face for that matter,' Charlie chuckled.

Robyn sighed, wiping the cut much more roughly than necessary, causing her brother to cry out in pain. 'You know that's not what I meant. You shouldn't have even been in that situation in the first place.'

Charlie remained silent for a moment before responding to his sister. 'Jaune needed the confidence boost. He's been doubting himself for a long time ever since coming here. I noticed it quite a while ago, and I'm sure some of you guys have noticed it too.'

'When I got to that clearing, Jaune was ready to bolt. He was standing his ground, but he wasn't really putting any effort into it. I guessed that Cardin wasn't enough motivation for him to really try and fight back. So, I figured that if one of his friends were in danger, he may respond in a better way.'

'Let me get this straight,' Robyn said, silencing her brother. 'You put your own life into the hands of someone who has been struggling with nearly everything since joining up here, including combat class, I might add, just so he would have more confidence in himself, in the hopes that it would allow him to win?'

'He would never have grown without it,' Charlie said. 'Right now, he's the guy who saved not just two other team leaders from a really tough Grimm, but he also saved me, someone who doesn't normally need saving. If that isn't enough of a confidence booster, then I don't know what is.'

Robyn remained silent as she finished cleaning the cut, pulling out a needle and some thread as she began to sew the cut shut. 'Next time, don't be so literal with putting your life on the line, alright?'

Charlie winced in pain as she forcefully pulled the thread through his skin, stopping himself from nodding as she brought the needle back around to his face. 'Got it, you can count on me.'

'Right, like I haven't heard that one before,' Robyn said, rolling her eyes at her brother's cheeky smile, unable to help herself from smiling back at him.

* * *

 **Well, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I've managed to keep your interest throughout these chapters. And now that I've actually posted these, it's gonna give me incentive to keep writing them. Nobody likes it when you a story doesn't continue/get an ending *cough* Kingkiller Chronicles *cough***

 **Anyway. Thanks for taking the time to read these chapters, those people who made it this far. I promise this story is going somewhere, think of everything in Volumes 1-3 to still be the prologue kinda, like they were with the actual show.**

 **Byeee :D**


	5. Chapter 5: Semester Two

**Wow! This took so long to come out. I will explain... if you really care.**

 **There isn't much to it really. I've had four different tests at University over the last week, plus a tournament that I had to practice for, plus a lot of other boring stuff that you wouldn't care about.**

 **But, I am back! And I bring with me the fifth chapter of The Chrome Chronicles, huzzah!**

* * *

\- Chapter Five -

\- Semester Two -

After the incident in Forever Fall with Cardin and the Ursa, the rest of the semester passed without incident. The once bully was now much calmer after his rescue from Jaune, even respecting the blond knight, although never in front of anybody else.

Well, without incident excluding Team RWBY somehow thwarting a White Fang robbery of dust in Vale that is. After that however, there were no other incidents throughout the semester. Professor Port continued to tell boring stories of his past, Professor Oobleck continued to zoom around the classroom and speaking too quickly for anybody to understand him and Professor Goodwitch continued to run a good combat class, even though there wasn't all that much to learn sometimes.

Even the break between the first and second semesters had been relatively quiet, especially with some of the more, energetic, of their friends having left to go back home to spend time with their families. That didn't stop Charlie's own teammates from trying to make things exciting for him of course.

Now however, the break between the semesters had come to a close, and with the enormous number of students who had travelled to Vale from their own academies to participate in the Vytal Tournament in a few weeks, the grounds at Beacon had become extremely full of people from each continent. An entire building full of spare dorms on the east side of the campus had already been completely filled, so any spare rooms throughout the academy were being used to accommodate the large influx of students.

It also coincidentally ended up being the occasion required for Team Chrome to finally meet the Sun Wukong that Team RWBY had been talking about ever since their run in with the White Fang last semester. Now that his own teammates had finally arrived from Haven, his dorm room was finally allocated to him, and he was officially allowed on campus.

To say the members of Team SSSN were odd, was a little bit of an understatement. When the four of them first walked into the cafeteria one morning, almost every pair of eyes in the hall turned to watch the four of them.

Sun was exactly how Team RWBY had described him. Messy blond hair, blue eyes, and a cheeky grin that surely only belonged on young children. A monkey tail of the same colour as his hair darted around behind him as he walked. What caught the eyes of everyone else in the room of course, was his obvious lack of interest in the state of dress he was in, wearing a pair of blue cargo pants, black and yellow sneakers, and a white shirt which he either didn't button up, or the buttons had fallen off a long time ago and he hadn't cared to get a new shirt.

Next to him walked the rest of his team. A tall, dark skinned boy with dark green hair and bright yellow eyes bore a similar style to Sun, wearing an open long coat with green wing designs to show off his own muscular torso, along with a few tattoos placed around his body.

A much shorter boy, with red hair and a slightly, flamboyant fashion sense was on the other side of this taller student, wearing a white shirt, pants, then a very intricate and detailed red coat which he kept slung over his left shoulder.

Finally, to the other side of Sun walked, what Charlie hated to say, the embodiness of cool. Messy, undercut light blue hair and a pair of equally blue eyes was enough to pull off a cool look, but the casual way he wore a white shirt and tie beneath a red jacket, not unlike how Charlie and his sister wore their own clothes, accompanied with pairs of leather padded and armoured fingerless gloves, combat boots and trousers, literally rounded him out to be the coolest looking person Charlie had seen for a long time.

Except for the weird yellow goggles that were strapped across his forehead. They were a little bit out of place…

'Sup losers' Sun introduces himself, throwing up a peace sign as he approaches the group with his team.

'Hey Sun!' Ruby smiles, waving at the four newcomers, oblivious to the looks of jealousy getting thrown at their group from all of the other girls in the hall. 'So, you gonna introduce us?'

'I'm getting there, I'm getting there!' Sun answers, making slow down motions with his gauntleted hands. 'Guys, these are my teammates. Sage, the tall one. Scarlet, the mini pirate. And our resident nerd.'

'Geh, geh, geh, geh!' the blue-haired boy interrupts, shaking his finger at Sun. 'Intellectual, okay. Thank you very much. I'm Neptune.'

'Nice to meet you Neptune,' Yang says with a wink towards the exchange student, an action which doesn't go unnoticed by the entire group, who roll their eyes at Yang's flirting.

'Likewise,' Neptune replies with a smile, smoothly sliding away from Sun to her side. 'I don't believe I got your name though, little firefly.'

'It's Yang,' she answered with another wink. 'But if you really want, I'd much prefer to be compared to a dragon. I'm a lot more aggressive than a firefly, if you catch my drift.'

The sound of palms slapping to foreheads echoed across the table, unfortunately not loud enough for either of the two of them to notice, as they continued their conversation with each other.

'How about the rest of your friends?' Sun asked. 'I haven't exactly managed to meet all of them yet.'

'Oh right!' Ruby replied. 'Ahem. Please raise your hand when your name is called. Jaune!'

'Hey,' Jaune waved.

'Pyrrha!'

'Hello!'

'Nora!'

'Pancakes?!'

'Ren!'

Ren silently raised his hand, waving softly to the newcomers.

'Charlie!'

'Present.'

'Robyn!'

'You do realise nobody is actually raising their hands?'

'Hannah!'

The faunus girl raised her hand, poking her tongue out at her partner.

'Misty!'

Misty gave a silent wink towards the exchange students, firing a finger gun at Sage.

'So, you all here for the tournament?' Jaune asked, stabbing his fork into his empty plate, as his pancakes had been stolen by Nora just a few seconds prior.

'We get pretty lucky usually,' Scarlet answered. 'So, we decided we'd give it a shot. We're far from the best team at Haven, but we can hold our own.'

'I guess we'll see about that, won't we?' Hannah teased. 'You never know who you'll go up against in the tournament.'

'Woah. You never said you knew another faunus Blake!' Sun said, double taking as he noticed the fox ears atop Hannah's head. 'I thought it was just gonna be the two of us!'

Silence covered the table as Blake looked up from her book, eyes narrowed and glaring intensely at Sun, who noticed what he said a second too late, slapping his hand to his mouth.

'Wait, what?' Nora asked in confusion, head spinning to look at Blake. 'What's he talking about?'

'Uh, n-n-nothing! Heh heh,' Sun stuttered nervously as Blake slowly reached for the knife at her side. 'Wow look at the time! Gotta run, seeya!'

And with that, the simian faunus darted out of the cafeteria, the rest of his teammates shaking their heads in amusement. The rest of the group however were still staring at Blake, awaiting clarification from the dark-haired girl.

'Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now, right Blake?' Yang grinned with a wink, joining the conversation once again to drop a pun, even if only Team RWBY understood it.

Whilst most of the group didn't catch onto the pun, Charlie, Pyrrha and Ren did, eyes darting up to the bow sitting atop Blake's head. Blake caught their eye movements, sighing and nodding to them to confirm their suspicions.

'I still don't get it,' Nora said, quickly turning her head between everyone else in the group to try and get the answer she was after.

'I'll tell you later,' Ren chuckled.

* * *

The thunk of Misty's head hitting the desk woke everyone else up from their light slumbers, causing them all to jolt upright in their seats, but not interrupting Professor Port's latest tale of the first time he encountered a Deathcrawler.

'When I finally found the nest, I nearly mistook it for a spider infested cave. But, my incredible instincts told me otherwise, and I pressed on, continuing my journey into the nest!' the portly man exclaimed as he strolled around his classroom.

'Wait, when did he reach the nest?' Weiss asked, scrolling back through the notes she had taken down. 'I thought he was still at the village trying to figure out where it was?'

'You fell asleep,' Charlie whispered down to her. 'All you missed was him learning that a cow had vanished from the livestock pens, so when he found it a few miles out of the village trapped in a hole covered in webs, he knew that the nest had to be nearby.'

'What? How did he find the cow?' Weiss shot back.

'He heard the cries of the terrified creature from a mile away apparently,' Charlie replied. 'I don't know what he means by that.'

'When I made my way into the deepest section of the nest, I found an entire lair of smaller Deathcrawlers surrounding their mother. I knew that I had to act fast, lest I be overwhelmed!'

'So, you guys have had him as your Grimm Studies teacher this whole time?' Neptune asked, still wearing a face of befuddlement as he watched Professor Port begin to replicate his battle with the Deathcrawlers.

'Better believe it,' Yang replied, her head sinking even lower into her arms as she desperately struggled to stay awake. 'What's your professor like?'

'A lot more like Doctor Oobleck,' Neptune replied. 'But without the caffeine addiction. We go out into the fields around Mistral every now and then to practice against live Grimm.'

'Really? Professor Port just brings them into the classroom,' Ruby interrupted.

'Well, I guess that's easier than trying to bring everyone out of the school,' Sun replied as he shrugged his shoulders.

'And as I raised my weapon for the final blow I – '

As Professor Port was about to finish his story, the sound of the bell ringing cut over his voice, causing him to drop from his pose and sigh unhappily.

'I can never time these quite right,' he said sadly. 'Well, as usual, we will continue this story next time class.'

The class wasn't even paying attention any more, already making their way out of the classroom, heading towards Professor Goodwitch's combat class, where all of the exchange students would finally be joining in with all of the Beacon students as well.

'Now students,' Professor Goodwitch began speaking as they all settled into various seats around the arena. 'During the various stages of the Vytal Tournament, you will be randomly selected in your duels, rather than having a set path you will follow throughout the tournament. That is to say, nobody will know who they are to be facing until the randomisation process is completed.'

'This is not unlike our own system that we use in our classrooms. However, in the later stages of the tournament you will only discover who you are going to be battling moments before the duel. This means that you need to able to quickly assess your opponent, as you have no time to prepare for the battle.'

'This is what we will be running through today,' she continued. 'One of the worst things that can happen to a Huntsman or a Huntress in the field, is to be unprepared. Although Professor Port claims it is better to have another challenge to overcome, I will be giving you the training required to think on the go, so that even if you are unprepared, you will end up with an advantage as the battle goes on.'

'Are there any questions?'

For a few seconds, the entire group of students were still, then a single hand was raised into the air.

'Yes, Mr Arc?' Professor Goodwitch sighed.

'I was just wondering, are we going to be doing any team battles, or is it just one on one fights?' Jaune asked nervously.

'Single combat only, Mr Arc,' Professor Goodwitch replied. 'If you want practice with your team, I suggest taking to the training rooms in your free time.'

Jaune nodded, sinking back down in his seat in the hopes that if he was less visible, maybe he wouldn't be selected to have to fight today. It wasn't hard, as everyone else was sitting up straight, eager to finally compete with new people from the other academies.

Their actions immediately changed as Pyrrha's name was the first name on the screen. Although they had never fought against her before, obviously her reputation as a fighter greatly preceded her, as nobody seemed willing to have to fight the 'Invincible Girl'.

The students all waited silently, holding their breath as they prayed they wouldn't be the poor sod who would have to fight Pyrrha Nikos. As the name of her opponent finally appeared on the screen, a collective sigh was let out from all of the students who had arrived from the other academies.

'Very well, we have our first two combatants of the day,' Professor Goodwitch announced. 'Ms Nikos, Mr Arduin. Would the two of you please make your way downstairs to collect your equipment.'

The two stood up from their seats, sparing each other a quick smile before parting for the changing rooms to collect their gear. As the two left from their seats, several of their friends were bouncing up and down in their seats, eager to watch what was likely to be a pretty good fight.

Pyrrha and Charlie hadn't gone against each other at all through the first semester, and so far, they had a 100% win/loss ratio in combat class. The real question was, who was going to be the one leaving today, still holding that same win percentage?

'Ooooh, this is gonna be so exciting!' Ruby squealed, jumping up and down in her seat along with her sister, Nora and Misty.

'I highly doubt Charlie will win,' Weiss said, arms folded and eyes closed. 'Pyrrha is a world-renowned fighter, and is far more skilled than he is.'

'He might surprise you,' Robyn whispered in annoyance, attempting to ignore the vague insult Weiss had just thrown at her brother.

'I don't know,' Neptune replied. 'I fought with her once at Sanctum. She's really good.'

'Sounds like we should be betting on this,' Sun interrupted with a cheeky grin. Everyone else turned to glare at him, before agreeing with his idea, quickly setting bets on who would win the fight. Soon enough, most of the students in the arena had placed bets on either one of the two students, and although Professor Goodwitch didn't appear to be very pleased with how they were acting, she didn't try to stop them either.

* * *

As the last bet was placed, the two combatants walked back into the arena. Pyrrha now fully clad in her golden armour, Milo and Akouo slung across her back, and Charlie in his own clothing, his blades sheathed behind his waist. Pyrrha flicked her arms outwards, her sword and shield sliding down her arms into place, taking a defensive stance to several cheers from the stadium.

Charlie quietly answered in kind, drawing the blades from behind his back and spinning them in his hands once, shifting them from daggers to full length swords. He took his own stance, the blades held lightly in his hands as he trained his eyes on Pyrrha.

'Don't go easy on me now!' he called over to her, a small smile on his face.

'I was going to say the same thing,' Pyrrha teased back.

They fell silent quickly afterwards, and Professor Goodwitch beckoned for the crowd to be quiet. A few more moments passed, before the buzzer went off and the two charged towards one another.

Pyrrha spun Milo in her hand, the sword shifting into its spear form, and she rolled Akouo back up her arm, the shield sheathing across her back. She swung Milo across Charlie's chest, an attack he quickly blocked with a blade. She spun on the spot as he brought the other sword down towards her, the blade clashing against her shield. Continuing her motion, she brought Milo back around for two more quick slashes, each parried by one of Charlie's blades, before darting forwards past her opponent, slashing Milo across his side but being blocked by a blade at the last second.

Pyrrha leapt into the air, aiming for the stationary Charlie, stabbing her spear into the floor as he rolled to the side. As she hit the ground, she threw the spear towards him, firing the rifle at the same time to give it extra speed, then catching it out of the air as he barely deflected it.

She rolled across the ground and attempted to sweep his legs out from under him, but he leapt upwards, flinging one of his blades at her, which she barely deflected with Akouo as she drew it back down to her arm.

She spun Milo in her hand, shifting it into a rifle and firing at him point blank. He pushed the rifle aside with a sword, spinning the other way to try attacking from the other side, but found his attack blocked with the sword once more.

Pyrrha spun Milo around, shifting the weapon through its different forms, slowly pushing Charlie backwards as he struggled to keep the weapon at back with his single blade. As Pyrrha added extra force behind Milo for one of her attacks, she managed to push his sword away far enough to give her an opening. She spun the spear around, firing the rifle inside of the weapon, sending the weapon flying forwards into his gut with a mighty jab.

Just before the weapon made contact, Charlie vanished in a flash of his aura, and she heard him rolling across the floor behind her. She spun around in time to see him pick up his other blade, spinning around and scraping the two across the floor of the arena. The blades were set alight, and a wall of fire rushed towards her. Pyrrha dodged the dust attack with a flip to the side, raising her shield in time to block another attack.

The strength behind the dust infused blades was enough to push her backwards this time, and as she slid to a stop, she noticed Charlie already rushing towards her. She stabbed towards his face, an easy attack to block, before dropping to the floor on top of Akouo. With the lack of friction from her shield against the floor, Pyrrha fired Milo to the side, causing her to spin around quickly, and attempted to sweep Charlie's legs out from under him once more.

Charlie jumped backwards, raising his blades as Pyrrha spun once more, pushing off from the floor and heading towards him feet first, kicking out at him with her heeled shoes. He deflected the attack, pushing her feet to the floor.

The Mistralian girl used her momentum to continue moving towards him, jumping upwards and rolling over his shoulder into the air, flinging Akouo back towards him. Once again however, he vanished in a flash of his black aura, appearing a few feet to the left, watching as Akouo sailed past him.

Pyrrha charged towards him, feinting an attack low before swinging Milo back up to his chest. Unfortunately, he predicted this movement, leaving one blade across his chest to deflect her attack, stabbing the other towards her leg. She managed to raise her knee in time to deflect the sword across her armour, kicking off from the floor and rising over his head to get behind him, chasing down her shield and sliding it back across her arm.

The two ran at each other once more, Pyrrha charging him with her shield raised to push him back a few feet. She lowered Akouo, swiping Milo across him once again but finding nothing but his blades like before. The two began a deadly dance with their weapons, spinning them through the air and around their bodies as the deflected, parried, countered and counter-attacked each other's movements, but neither managing to land a blow on the other.

Under the speed of Charlie's attacks, Pyrrha had no choice but to begin taking a few steps back, unable to match the speed of his two blades. As she did, she noticed the grin across his face too late. In another flash of his aura, Charlie vanished a few steps backwards, leaping into the air, blades raised and set alight once again.

Pyrrha's eyes widened as she leapt backwards, barely avoiding the initial attack which landed directly where she had been standing. She spun in the air, shifting Milo back to a rifle and fired a few shots towards Charlie. Another flash of his black aura had him already back standing in a defensive position, deflecting the rounds with his blades. He charged her again, and when she shifted Milo back into a sword to fight him in close quarters once again, he clashes his blades behind him to give him a boost, sending himself towards her even faster than before and kicking against Akouo, causing her to stumble backwards a few feet.

The two then continued their dance, slashing and stabbing at each other, only managing to avoid the others attacks by a few seconds each. The pair used their weapons to their full capabilities, Pyrrha shifting Milo between its different forms to attempt to catch Charlie off guard, and Charlie shifting the lengths of the blades to change the distance between the two of them to force her to use a fighting style more suitable to deal with the threat he was posing. When at their shortest, Pyrrha had no choice but to use Milo as a sword, seeing as its spear form was too awkward to use in such close quarters.

Getting an idea, Pyrrha spun Milo around her neck, shifting it into a spear and firing the rifle as it did, making it jolt forwards to keep Charlie at bay. Like a pool que, she pushed him back a few more feet before charging him once more, slashing at him from below. He lit his blades in response, and the clash produced enough energy to push Pyrrha to her knees on the floor, and Charlie up into the air.

Pyrrha leapt upwards after her opponents, and the two dealt a few quick blows mid-air with each other, before Pyrrha used Akouo as a stepping stone and thrust herself towards Charlie, spinning around him in the air and grabbing hold of him. As they began to fell, Pyrrha pulled him down to slam him into the ground.

Just before they landed, his weight vanished, and Pyrrha had to change her landing tactic, barely sticking the landing and catching Akouo as it fell out of the air. Looking up, she saw Charlie grinning at her from a few feet away, spinning his blades in his hands.

'That was a good warmup,' he taunted, spinning his blades as he waited for her to get her footing back.

Pyrrha nodded in response before darting back into the fray, beginning their clash anew. To all of the students watching from the side-lines, the longer the two fought, the more the two became a blur in the middle of the arena. Pyrrha being a blur of gold and red, whilst Charlie appeared to be a dark shadow encircling her. The clashing of their weapons ringing out across the hall, but the actual attacks unseen by anyone except the two combatants.

Although it was just a friendly spar in a classroom, at this point, the fight had become a matter of pride. Neither of the two really wanted to lose, and so they were willing to give their all, to win.

The two were no longer just using their weapons to their full capabilities, but also their bodies as well. Darting, dodging and spinning both on the ground and through the air to try and get the upper hand, weapons constantly clashing against one another.

Pyrrha threw Akouo back towards Charlie, who rolled under the shield, bringing himself back up and swinging his blades in different directions. Pyrrha caught one blade on Milo, barely diverting the other with her semblance, kicking out at his knee to knock him off balance only for him to move his leg to the side, before bringing it back and wrapping it around Pyrrha's.

Charlie turned to the side, his leg pull behind Pyrrha's and the two tumbled to the floor. Charlie raised his blades again, slashing at her face. Pyrrha brought up Milo just in time, blocking the attack. The two broke the clash, spinning back to their feet. During this movement, Pyrrha spun Milo quickly before throwing it at Charlie. In turn, Charlie had shifted a blade into a dagger length weapon and flicked it towards her.

The both of them only saw the weapons at the last second, each taking the others weapon to the chest and falling to the floor once again. Cheers filled the stadiums as the two fighters finally landed blows against one another.

Pyrrha plucked the dagger from the floor, using it to replace Milo, whilst Charlie did the same. With the now mismatched weapons, the combatants fought once again. Charlie darted into Pyrrha's range, raining blows down upon her shield as she struggled to find an opening to counter. Instead, she pushed back with Akouo, throwing Charlie's dagger back at him.

Milo came flying back her way, impacting hard with Akouo due to the extra power behind it with the accompanied rifle shot, knocking the shield from her hand. She managed to grab the spear at the last second, bringing it back around to get back into combat.

Charlie had failed to catch the blade Pyrrha had thrown at him, instead taking to charging towards her with the one blade. Now with a much slower fighting style, Pyrrha had a much easier time keeping up with his attacks. However, what Charlie had lost in speed, he had made up for in strength.

His sword never stopped moving, constantly spinning, slashing and stabbing. Overhead, underhanded, across the chest. Pyrrha reacted in kind, deflecting most of the attacks with Milo and attempting to counter attack, but like before, neither of the two were able to land hits on one another.

As Pyrrha deflected another blow, she stabbed Milo towards his chest, and Charlie vanished in a burst of his aura once more. A slash landed across her back, and Pyrrha yelped slightly. She spun on the spot to retaliate, but he had vanished once more already. He appeared to her side, weapon poised in her blind spot and slashing upwards across her side. Once again, she tried to retaliate, but before she could strike he had vanished and appeared in another spot around her, taking another swipe at her whilst she was unable to fight back.

A few swipes later and Pyrrha finally got lucky, blocking a blow and reacting fast enough to plant a foot atop his knee, leaping upwards and planting her knee square in his face. The sharp armour across her knee forced his head back roughly, stunning him slightly. Pyrrha took this opportunity to bring her other leg up, kicking at his chest to push him away before firing Milo at him rapidly.

Still stunned, the first few rounds impacted against his chest before he managed to bring his sword up and deflect them once more. The two charged each other once again, as they grew nearer, Pyrrha slid to the floor, Milo extended into a spear, pointed directly towards Charlie's gut. Charlie on the other hand had leapt into the air, his sword in an arc and heading directly for Pyrrha's chest. Time around the two seemed to slow, each praying their blow would land first.

As it turned out, they both landed at the same time. Charlie's blade raked across her chest whilst Milo punched into his gut. Pyrrha fell back to the floor, and Charlie awkwardly fell over behind her as his momentum combined with the spear in his stomach made for a rough landing.

As the two got to their feet, preparing for another bout, the buzzer sounded, indicating the end of the match. The two turned to the display on the wall, not moving from their poses.

Pyrrha smiled in triumph. Charlie's aura had fallen enough to warrant her victory. She turned back to him, grin on her face, only to see a smile across his own face. Confused, she turned back to the display, noticing that her aura had also fallen into the red.

They had tied.

Cheers erupted throughout the arena. People shouted in approval, people shouted in frustration, people shouted because people were shouting. Professor Goodwitch approached the two of them slowly.

'Well done the two of you,' she smiled at them, causing them to do a double take, as they had never seen her smile before, ever. 'You should have no issues in the tournament. However, if you come across one another in the finals, I recommend not ending the match in a draw.'

The two nodded in response, turning back to one another in silence.

'Good match,' Charlie smiled, holding out a hand.

'Good match,' Pyrrha smiled back, shaking his hand.

The two separated as Professor Goodwitch began selecting the next combatants for the class, and as Pyrrha walked away, she felt a sense of happiness. Although she may not have won, she had finally found someone who she had to try and win against.

* * *

'All I'm saying is, if Pyrrha was actually trying, she would've totally kicked Charlie's butt!' Nora exclaimed, bouncing down the corridor as Robyn chased her down.

'Please! She was trying her hardest!' Robyn laughed. 'If anything, it was Charlie who wasn't trying! There were so many attacks he could have avoided but didn't! He let her win!'

'Or maybe Pyrrha really is as good as I said and was better than him,' Weiss interrupted.

'They tied!' Misty input, trying to defend her partner and leader.

'Because Pyrrha wasn't trying,' Weiss snapped back, riling up the Arduin girl even more.

'Grrr. Charlie, Pyrrha! Tell them the truth!' Robyn yelled at the two.

'What can I say?' Pyrrha smiled. 'Your brother is certainly talented. I haven't come across anybody who has been able to match me in combat before.'

'So, we've agreed, they're both as good as each other,' Ruby begged, sick of the argument that had been going on for the last few hours.

'But, you do rely on your semblance very heavily,' Pyrrha interrupted. 'If you weren't allowed to use it, I would probably beat you easily.'

'See, I told you!' Nora yelled, pointing a finger at Robyn triumphantly. Charlie rolled his eyes as Robyn started to get flustered once again, trying to come up with another excuse for him.

'Guys, listen,' Charlie said, trying to break up the argument. 'With my semblance, I am more than a match for Pyrrha. Without it though, she has way too much skill for me to match her. So, until we have a match based purely on skill, the two of us are equals. Is everyone alright with this?'

'No! I lost three thousand lien because you couldn't pull off the win!' Yang interrupted. 'You're going down for that!'

Charlie sighed in frustration, giving in to the fact that none of their friends were going to let this go.

'You two could always have a rematch?' Jaune suggested.

'Maybe. But not for a really long time,' Charlie replied.

'Agreed,' Pyrrha responded.

'You guys are no fun,' Sun complained.

'Well, you're welcome to have a turn against them,' Blake teased.

'Are you kidding me? I wouldn't last two seconds against either of those two!'

'How about this?!' Neptune interrupted. 'All fourteen of us against the two of you!'

Charlie turned to Pyrrha with a smile. 'That sounds doable. What do you think Pyrrha?'

Pyrrha smiled back. 'That sounds like a grand idea! Good thinking Neptune!'

The rest of the group turned back to Neptune with a look of disbelief. The blue-haired student laughed nervously as he noticed their glares.

'Heh heh. You know I was joking, right?'

'We weren't.'

…

…

…

'Ah crap.'

* * *

 **Phew. That was a bit difficult to try and write to be honest. But I loved it every step of the way!**

 **Note: The part at the end with everyone discussing the fight is my way of showing that Charlie is not designed to be OP. Yes, he is talented, but mostly its his semblance that allows him to do so well. Take that away and he's probably about the same skill level as Blake in combat.**

 **But anyway, I think this is going to be the new time that I'll release chapters (hopefully weekly of course). I don't know what I was thinking to release them on Monday afternoons. I'm so damn busy on those days!**

 **Anyway, we're getting close to the Vytal Tournament! Just a few chapters until then, and after the tournament, that's were the plot is actually going to kick in. As I said before, like RWBY Volume 1-3, this is kinda just the setup still.**

 **If you're still reading, I applaud your ability to withstand my ramblings. Have a great night/day/morning/afternoon/evening/whatever time it is as you read this.**

 **Ciao!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Vytal Dance

**Sooo, this may or may not be a week late. I can guarantee that it was for a legitimate reason (I was really busy with lots of assignments for the last while and didn't really have the chance to finish this off). But, it's here now!**

* * *

\- Chapter Six -

\- The Vytal Dance -

For the next few weeks, the entire academy talked non-stop about Charlie and Pyrrha's battle. For the first day they didn't mind it, but after this long, it was starting to get a little bit annoying. Even the rumours of Team RWBY's alleged run-in with both the White Fang and Roman Torchwick weren't enough to take them out of the spotlight.

Thankfully, with the Vytal Dance coming up, the attention all of the students were giving the two of them had finally shifted to the idea of the dance, and people were starting to try and find someone to go with to the dance.

Well, most people were at least…

'Uuuugggghhhhhhh!' Ruby complained, collapsing on one of the chairs Yang and Weiss had set out in the dining hall for the dance. 'I know we said we wanted Blake to come to the dance, but I'm starting to agree with her. I don't think I want to go now.'

'Aww, come on Ruby!' Yang said, wrapping an arm around her sister's shoulder and drawing her in close for a hug. 'It'll be fun!'

'But Yang, it's just a load of dancing! I don't like dancing!' Ruby whined.

'Have you ever even tried it?' Weiss asked, overhearing their conversation as she set up one of the nearby tables.

'I don't need to try it to know that it's stupid,' Ruby mumbled.

'Maybe you should find someone to go with. You never know, you might find yourself a boyfriend,' Yang teased.

'Ugh, gross,' Ruby said, scrunching up her face and sticking out her tongue as if she were throwing up.

'Well, if you aren't going to take your problems elsewhere, you can help us out with organising a few things for the dance this weekend,' Weiss said, pushing a few squares of cloth across the table to the young leader. 'Which one do you think looks best? I need you to choose a tablecloth.'

Ruby smiled, looking down at the tablecloths before raising her eyebrows in confusion, darting her head between them all to try and spot the differences. 'Aren't they all the same?'

Weiss sighed, her head dropping to the table. 'Why do I even bother?!'

'Have you at least bought yourself a dress?' Yang asked her sister as she carried a large speaker from one side of the room to the other.

'What's the point? Who really cares if we can't get Blake to go?' Ruby sighed.

'How many times do I have to tell you? She is going to be there,' Yang smiled, dropping the speaker on the ground and clapping her hands together before noticing what Weiss was pulling out of one of the boxes they had hauled over. 'Weiss! I thought we had a deal! NO DOILIES!'

'You're mistaken!' Weiss argued, pointing a finger into Yang's face. 'The deal was, if you got fog machines, I got doilies!'

'I don't remember that!' Yang argued. 'I thought you said you were okay with the fog machines?!'

'There are gonna be fog machines at the dance?' Neptune asked with a grin as he made his way into the hall along with the rest of Team SSSN.

'You bet we are!' Yang exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air.

'We're thinking about it!' Weiss shot at the blond girl.

'Well, I think it sounds pretty cool,' Scarlet replied.

'Aww, I didn't even have to offer you anything to agree with me,' Yang flirted with her recently acquired boyfriend.

'I told you guys, none of that around me, it's gross!' Ruby pointed at them angrily, causing the pair to laugh.

'So, you ladies all ready for dress up?' Sun asked, pointing finger guns at everyone else.

'Pfft…. Yeah, right!' Ruby laughed.

'Laugh all you want little sis, tomorrow night, I'll be turning heads!' Yang said with a smile.

'Just remember whose head is the important one,' Neptune winked.

Weiss rolled her eyes at Neptune's comment. 'Well, what are you two wearing?'

'Uuhhh… this?' Sun replied, gesturing to his shorts and open shirt. Sage nodded in agreement.

'Ignore him, for he knows not what he says,' Neptune interrupted.

'Hey! I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt and tie kind of place,' Sun argued.

'Plus, with bodies like ours, why would we hide them away,' Sage teased, causing Ruby and Weiss to slab their hands to their foreheads.

'So, what does Blake think of all this? Is she still being all, you know, Blake-y?' Sun asked, rubbing the back of his head.

'Obviously,' Weiss replied, crossing her arms.

'Man, you really need to find a way to change her mind,' Scarlet piped in.

'Guys, I told you. Blake _will_ be at the dance tomorrow,' Yang stated.

* * *

'You've got the right idea, but you need to think about what each of your teammates bring to the table,' Charlie said, circling a note Jaune had made in his book. 'You've noted that Nora is the powerhouse of the group, Pyrrha is a skilled fighter, and Ren is good at catching people unawares.'

'Right, but how do you combine all of that into team attacks?' Jaune asked, scratching the side of his head.

'How about you start with the basics,' Charlie answered. 'You have the two partner groups in the teams. For you guys, it's you and Pyrrha, then Nora and Ren.'

'But still, how do you make a team attack with all of us?'

'Let's draw on Team RWBY for an example. Checkmate, Weiss and Blake's attack, is a mixture of them fighting both at the same time, but alternating between the two of them. In a sense, because the two of them keep switching between each other, it seems like you're fighting one person, but the fighting style is continuously changing.'

'Alright, go on.'

'When they're switching out, they tend to cover each other to give them the time and space to swap positions,' Charlie continued. 'So, for example, you and Pyrrha could replicate that sort of attack. Your fighting styles are quite similar really, so it wouldn't take much for you to be able to work together both offensively and defensively.'

'Huh, I don't know why I didn't think of that before,' Jaune mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

'I like to think that you have more of an, impromptu strategist, shall we say?' Charlie replied. 'Your strategic abilities from what I've seen over the last few months is at its best when you come up with it on the spot. Planning it out beforehand, you don't seem to have the right mind for it.'

'Well, yeah,' Jaune answered. 'I mean, how are you supposed to plan out something perfectly, before it happens? There are so many different variables that can occur which you can't account for.'

'Well, if you want I could try to help you out with that too,' Charlie replied. 'A good way to get better at it, is funnily enough to play games, like chess.'

'Chess?'

'Yes, chess. Different people have different strategies for how they would play. If you understand them good enough, you can start to predict the moves they are going to make,' Charlie said, writing a few notes in his own book as he finished up a paragraph in his assignment for Doctor Oobleck.

'I might have to play you a few times then,' Jaune said with a smile.

'If you really want a challenge, you should play Robyn,' Charlie replied. 'She's even better than I am. When I don't cheat of course. But, enough of that. I'll let you have a think about those team attacks.'

Jaune nodded, turning back to his book and beginning to take down notes in the pages. He started writing up tables of the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates, linking certain aspects together. For the next few hours, the two worked in silence, Jaune occasionally asking Charlie for his opinion on an idea he had come up with.

Eventually, Jaune dropped his pen on his book, sighing with happiness as he finally finished off the ideas for the team attacks for Team Juniper. Charlie looked over at his outburst, craning his neck to look down at the book. Jaune made it slightly easier for him by lifting the book and passing it over to his fellow team leader. The dark-haired boy scanned through the ideas Jaune had jotted down, nodding his head occasionally as he read.

'What do you think?' Jaune asked nervously after Charlie silently read for a few minutes.

'I think, that you have got some great ideas that will give you guys a serious edge in the tournament,' Charlie smiled, passing Jaune his book back, causing the blond knight to smile in return. 'I like that one in particular. It looks like you took a bit of inspiration from one of my creations there.'

Jaune nodded as he looked at the one Charlie tapped his finger against. 'It may have played a part.'

'Let's just hope we don't come across each other in the tournament then. I'd hate to have to try even out the playing field just because I've already seen these moves of yours.'

'Not that it would really matter, would it?' Jaune taunted, causing Charlie to laugh.

The two began to pack up their books, storing everything into their bags before beginning to walk their way down the stairs of the tower. Thinking on it now, the reason nobody had ever found this hiding hole of Charlie's was because the only way up to the top of the tower was the set of stairs. No elevators led this high into the tower, so students wouldn't really have the patience to climb so many stairs just to reach a simple common room. Jaune was just thankful that Charlie had revealed the location to him at all. It really was a lovely place if you wanted peace and quiet.

'So, uh, you taking anyone to the dance this weekend?' Jaune asked, trying to break the silence as they made their way down the tower.

'Why? Are you asking me to go with you?' Charlie teased in reply, causing Jaune to stutter out in panic.

'N-n-n-no! No, I was just wondering if you had found somebody to go with,' Jaune stuttered. 'After that last battle you had with Pyrrha, I'd be surprised if you didn't have girls clamouring after you. It's every day that someone beats the Champion of Mistral!'

'Well, you aren't wrong there,' Charlie sighed. 'Most of the junior students here have asked me, not just the ones from Beacon either.'

'And you didn't say yes?' Jaune asked, causing Charlie to shake his head in reply. 'Why?'

'I don't actually know any of them,' Charlie stated. 'I'd rather go with someone who actually means something to me than simply taking someone for the sake of taking someone. Enough about me though, what about you?'

'What about me?'

'Who are you going with?'

Jaune sighed. 'Nobody. I keep asking Weiss, but she just doesn't seem interested.'

Charlie rolled his eyes, an action which went unnoticed by Jaune, who was now staring at his feet. 'Maybe, that's a sign that you should look for somebody else to go with.'

'Like who?' Jaune sighed in exasperation. 'There isn't anybody else who would go with me!'

'Well, you could always go with Pyrrha?' Charlie proffered, hoping the blond would catch onto the hint that Charlie had thrown his way. The laugh that escaped Jaune's mouth however led Charlie to believe that he hadn't.

'Yeah right. Imagine that. She's one of, if not the top student in the whole school right now. She should be going with someone more in her league, like you,' Jaune said, turning to face his friend. 'There you go! You can go with Pyrrha! If she hasn't already got someone to go with of course.'

'I-I don't think that would really work,' Charlie answered. 'I don't think the two of us really see each other in that way.'

'That's a shame,' Jaune replied. 'She's such a great person.'

Charlie nodded back, rolling his eyes and sighing in his head. _If only you would act on that thought Jaune._

As the two finally reached the bottom of the stairs, they walked through a few corridors before spotting Yang make her way out of a classroom ahead of them, a wide smile plastered across her face. She held the door open, and a few seconds later Blake walked out too, wearing the same smile. The partners gave each other a quick one armed hug before walking down a corridor perpendicular to the direction to two boys were going.

Both of them watched the scene in confusion, peeking into the classroom and finding nobody else inside. They turned to each other, each trying to understand what they had just witnessed.

'You don't think that...?' Jaune started saying, before breaking off the thought, unable to complete it.

'I-I don't know…' Charlie replied.

'Do you think we need to tell Sun and Neptune?' Jaune asked.

'I-Maybe we should wait on that, just in case we're missing something here.'

'Good call.'

* * *

The day of the dance fell upon the students residing in Beacon quickly, and before everyone knew it, suddenly everyone was preparing for the dance. Due to the nature of the dressing up people were doing, it became necessary for people to shift around which dorm room they were changing in.

Charlie was quickly booted from his team's room, sent outside with little more than a pat on the cheek and his suit in hand. He made his way to Team Juniper's room, where he managed to barter a trade with Pyrrha and Nora, who agreed to move into his dorm, changing with the rest of his teammates whilst he shared their room with Jaune and Ren.

For some reason, all of the male students had been forced to wear nearly the exact same attire. Everybody wore a white dress shirt, accompanied by a light grey vest and a black blazer jacket. Depending on the school, they had slightly different colouring to their bowties, as well as the lining around the edges of their blazer. Coming from Beacon, their three suits were trimmed with the universal green of Vale.

'It's official, green is really not my colour,' Charlie griped, turning up his nose as he fiddled with the bowtie in the mirror.

'Yeah, it would have been nice if we could have chosen the colour,' Jaune agreed.

'I don't know what you two are on about,' Ren interrupted. 'I like it.'

'Of course you like it Ren, green is pretty much your favourite colour!'

'I stand by what I said,' Ren rolled his eyes, slinging his blazer over his shoulders.

'Well, the rest of us would have preferred to be able to choose which colour they would wear,' Charlie shot back, grimacing as he finally got the bowtie to sit straight, sighing at Jaune as he turned around. 'That isn't anywhere near straight Jaune. You didn't even tie it properly either!'

'Well, excuse me for not being used to having to wear fancy dress clothes all the time!' Jaune snapped, folding his arms and pouting at his friend. Charlie rolled his eyes, moving over and redoing the blond knight's bow for him, much to his friend's embarrassment. What had originally taken Jaune ten minutes to complete, even if it wasn't done properly, only took Charlie a few seconds, deftly looping the ends of the fabric around each other into the same perfect shape that the dark-haired leader was wearing. Not a second after he stepped away, happy with his work, a knock resonated through the door.

Jaune strode over to the door, slowly opening it to peek at whoever was standing outside. His actions were too slow for the energetic bundle of excitement that burst into the room as soon as the door at opened by even a fraction. The pink and white shoulder less dress that Nora was wearing looked so out of place on the girl, the three boys almost had to do a double take, just to be sure that it was her.

'What's been taking you guys so long?! Me and Ruby have been done for the last half an hour!' Nora shouted at the three, her gaze pausing at Ren and her attitude immediately changing. 'Although, I'll forgive you for dressing Ren up so smartly!'

'I dressed myself actually,' Ren joked. 'Jaune on the other hand, we had to dress him a little bit.'

'I told you guys, I'm not used to wearing fancy clothes!'

'Neither is Nora, yet she still managed to get herself dressed more easily than you,' Charlie taunted, causing Nora's smile to widen even more as her team leader frowned.

'Can we just go now?' Jaune begged, receiving nods from the rest of the group. They made their way down to the ballroom, where music was already playing loudly, and the sounds of conversation filled the air. Making their way inside, the four were instantly greeted by Yang, who had dressed up in a simple white dress. Although simple in design, the fitting was nothing short of perfect, complimenting the curves of her body.

Her hair was still as unruly as ever of course.

'About time you guys showed up,' Yang teased with a wink. 'Good to see my search party found you guys.'

'Search party?' Jaune asked in confusion.

'Yeah, me!' Nora answered him, bouncing into the air with her hand held high.

'Come on in, have a great night!' Yang smiled, waving the four into the room. Nora and Ren disappeared almost instantly as the energetic girl steered her partner away towards the food table, no doubt in search of pancakes, just in case.

'I don't suppose you have any secret date that you haven't been telling us about waiting for you?' Charlie asked Jaune as the two picked up a pair of glasses of punch, steering to the side of the hall and off of the dance floor.

'No,' Jaune sighed. 'I asked Weiss one last time, but she still wasn't interested.'

'Want some advice on that front?' Charlie proffered, taking a sip from his punch.

'About what? Weiss?' Jaune asked.

'Yeah.'

'Of course, anything!'

'Let her go,' Charlie shrugged, turning to face his friend. 'I know it might be harsh of me to say this, but she doesn't have any interest in you. Actually, let me take that back. She doesn't have any interest in anyone.'

'What do you mean?'

Charlie sighed. 'Think of it this way. Weiss comes from an extremely rich family, owners of the SDC. I've met her father in person, and don't tell her I said this, but he's a bit of an ass. Whenever he spoke with Weiss at any formal parties in Atlas, he was always cold and distant with her. Not to mention flat out rude sometimes. So, when you have someone like that, who expects nothing but the best from you, you end up focusing entirely on it.'

'Are you saying that Weiss does everything she does to please her dad?'

'I wouldn't say it's to please him. Meet his expectations, yes. I don't think it's Weiss' intention to do everything just to make him happy, but from what I've seen, meeting his expectations, or making him happy probably makes things a whole lot easier on Weiss.'

'Right. But what does that have to do with being interested in people?' Jaune questioned.

'Weiss is so busy trying to do the best she can, she doesn't have the time to try and build up a meaningful relationship with another person. I doubt she's ever had a real friendship before she came here. She likely tries to ignore the idea of having someone like that in her life, just so she can put more effort into her studies as a Huntress.'

'I can see that, I guess,' Jaune replied, looking slightly less glum than before.

'You know, when she turns up, you should talk to Pyrrha,' Charlie hinted. 'She might appreciate a dance too you know?'

Jaune blinked rapidly, trying to come up with a reply but was cut off by a loud voice from the front of the ballroom.

'Oh, you look beautiful!' Yang shouted from across the room, jumping up and down around her sister as Ruby awkwardly made her way into the ballroom, evidently trying her hardest not to fall over in the heels she was wearing. Ever the helpful sister, Yang did little more than laugh at her sister's inability to walk in heels.

Clad in a dark red and black dress, although Ruby wasn't wearing the most amazing dress in the room, nobody could deny Yang's comment. Ruby tidied up nicely for a girl who preferred to wear combat boots and a cape with a hood on it. Not to mention the giant sniper scythe that belonged to her. You don't see many fancy, pantsy, dancy girls with one of those.

Blake and Sun closely followed Ruby into the hall, Blake in a dress of deep purple, with a slit cut down the sides of her legs, exposing them to the night air. Atop her head sat a purple bow to match the dress she wore. Sun on the other hand… well at least he tried. He had managed to put on the suit that had been allocated to him, but he had forgotten to wear the tie, vest and blazer. Even then, the white shirt was half unbuttoned, and his shoes looked suspiciously like his normal shoes, just painted black.

'At least they managed to convince Blake to come after all,' Jaune smiled, watching as their two faunus friends headed for the dance floor, the pair already smiling and laughing as they began dancing together, Sun's blond tail bobbing along behind him to the same pace as the music.

'What about you?' Jaune asked. 'Did you find yourself a girl last minute to come with?'

'No,' Charlie laughed. 'I did have to make a deal with my sister though. Who has actually just arrived.'

The rest of Team Chrome proceeded to walk into the hall, greeting Yang as the door closed behind them. Misty walked in alongside Sage, dressed in a short purple dress which ended a few inches below her waist. Robyn and Hannah were by her side, walking arm in arm. Robyn had her usual blue dress, the long skirt reaching down to the floor with the large splits in the sides exposing her legs from nearly the hip down. Hannah wore a dark red dress, a similar long skirt reaching down to the floor, the top of the dress wrapping around the back of her neck, holding the front of the dress up, her back in the open from the lack of the back of the dress.

The most important thing that Charlie took notice of however, were the wide smiles spreading across all of his teammates faces. Although he had seen them all smiling at some point throughout the year, there was something different about this. His sister in particular brought him the most joy, as he had never seen her look so happy before.

'Evening girls,' Charlie said, walking over to his smiling teammates. 'And Sage, of course.'

The dark-skinned student chuckled quietly, holding his hand out for Misty, who took it quickly as the two made their way towards the dance floor. Charlie mimicked Sage's action towards his sister. 'I believe I owe you a dance.'

'So, this is who you owed your first dance to,' Hannah said, releasing her grasp on Robyn's arm. 'I guess I should be happy it wasn't someone who might make me jealous.'

'I wouldn't do that to you,' Robyn smiled, giving Hannah a quick hug with one arm. 'It's just the one dance. It's kind of a tradition at this point.'

'Don't worry, I understand,' Hannah grinned. 'But remember, one dance! I don't want to have to knock out our fearless leader in order to get you back.'

'You could always give Jaune or Ruby a dance,' Charlie replied, smiling as Hannah began searching for the two other leaders. 'I'm sure one of them might appreciate a dance.'

'You got it,' Hannah chuckled, moving away from the twins. The two made their way to the dance floor, where they almost flawlessly transitioned from walking to dancing together. They had been to many formal events in their lives, dancing wasn't exactly a difficult skill for them.

'So, you and Hannah are getting along well?' Charlie asked his sister, tilting his head down to meet her gaze.

'Yes. We never really got to talk to many people our age who weren't rich snobs,' Robyn replied, Charlie rolling her eyes at her implication towards Weiss. 'It's nice to finally find someone who is easy to talk to and is… you know, like me.'

'I'm glad that the two of you are getting along so well,' Charlie smiled. 'If I may say so, I was a little bit worried about you when we were coming here. I wasn't sure if you would be able to make any really good friends. You've always stuck with me no matter what, I'm happy that you found Hannah.'

'Ugh, you know how to make things cheesy Charlie,' Robyn laughed, rolling her eyes at her brother. 'Besides, maybe I should be the one worried. You came here by yourself after all.'

'Not technically true.'

'I don't count,' Robyn growled.

'I wasn't talking about you,' Charlie smiled back, twirling his sister around before drawing her back towards him.

'Oh really?' Robyn asked, narrowing her eyes at her twin. 'Who did you come with then?'

'Jaune technically,' Charlie joked, flinching as his sister punched his arm.

'That doesn't count either! I mean someone who you came to dance with!'

'I'll find people to dance with throughout the night.'

'You better, cause I'm only giving you the one dance!' Robyn shot back.

Charlie smiled, something catching his eye behind his sister. 'Well, I could think of one person that I could probably swap you out for.'

'Oh, who's that?' Robyn asked as her brother spun the two around. Over his shoulder, she could see Hannah dancing with Ruby, keeping her standing with a strong grip as the younger girl struggled to keep upright as she wobbled around in her heels. 'You sure you want to risk that? Yang might get super defensive of her little sister.'

'I'll be fine,' Charlie smiled.

'Well, you could always give Ms Schnee a dance,' Robyn scowled, catching a glimpse of the white-haired heiress in the background. 'She seemed to come alone as well.'

'I doubt she would entertain that idea. She may have become friendlier since initiation, but I'm pretty sure deep inside she still hates the two of us with a passion.'

'Then it's your job as the eldest of the two of us to fix that rift between the three of us, right?' Robyn asked, nudging his arm with her elbow.

'That's a bit of a big ask.'

'Well, you've done some pretty incredible things before. If anyone can make her like us, even a little bit, I'd say it's you.'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence,' Charlie smiled.

'No problem,' his twin replied.

The pair continued the dance, enjoying each other's company on the dance floor, for the first time in quite a few months, gracefully making their way across the dance floor. As the song began to end, the two ended their dance with a pair of bows, Robyn still refusing to curtsy after all these years.

Almost immediately, the next song started up, and with incredibly fast movement, almost as if he had planned it, Charlie took hold of his sister's hand, spinning her behind him and swapping her with Ruby, sending his sister into her partner's arms, and drawing Ruby towards himself.

'Noooo!' Ruby whined. 'I thought I was free!'

Charlie chuckled. 'It's just a little dancing Ruby. After all the effort you guys put into Blake being here, I would have thought that you would have at least had some interest in being here.'

'Ugh, how many times do I have to say it? I'm not a fancy, pantsy, dancy kind of girl!' Ruby hissed, stumbling over her heels once again.

'If it's any consolation, neither is Robyn really,' Charlie replied, causing her to look up at him in disbelief. 'I'm serious. When she gets going she enjoys it, but normally beforehand she gets really irritated, stressing the point that it's a giant waste of time and that she hates it.'

Ruby tried to reply, instead stumbling again and heading straight for the floor. Luckily, Charlie's grip on her arm was strong enough to keep her upright, lifting her from her brief fall back to her feet almost instantaneously. 'If you want to stop falling, start stepping with your heel first, then let the rest of your foot follow. You're trying to take flat steps, like how you stomp around in your boots.'

'Hey, I don't stomp around!'

'You kinda do actually,' Charlie smiled.

'Oh, maybe that's why Weiss always asks how I'm so noisy when I'm walking?'

Charlie laughed quietly in reply. Taking his advice, Ruby started to stumble less and less as she took steps to continue their dance. By the end of the song, Ruby was no longer wobbly on her feet, and almost seemed to be enjoying herself. However, as the two finished their dance, Ruby still asked that she be allowed to leave the dance floor, thankfully getting a yes from her fellow leader.

Walking off of the dance floor, Ruby flicked her eyes around, desperately looking for Jaune, hoping he was still where she had left him. Instead, she caught sight of him on the balcony outside, talking with his own partner. She paused, not wanting to snoop, but was a bit too curious for her own good.

'Nobody asked me,' Pyrrha said sadly, her head dropped to stare at the ground.

'But that's…' Jaune began to say, words eventually failing him. 'But, you're Pyrrha Nikos! How could nobody have asked you?'

'I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place.'

'Everyone assumes I'm too good for them. That I'm on a level they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people,' Pyrrha said sadly, before letting out a small smile towards her partner. 'That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess, you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me for me.'

Jaune's mouth fell open, shock evident across his face. 'Y-you… are you saying you wanted to come with me?'

Pyrrha nodded shyly. 'Yes.'

Jaune stood in silence for another few seconds before stepping forwards and wrapping Pyrrha in a tight embrace. 'Then I'm sorry for not realising it sooner.'

Pyrrha tilted her head forwards a little more, resting her forehead against his shoulder, smiling into his blazer. Ruby couldn't help herself but let out a small smile as she watched the two. Her happy expression soon dropped as she caught sight of a dark figure dashing across one of the nearby rooftops.

* * *

Cinder dashed across the rooftops, her heeled boots making little to no sounds on the rooftop. She vaulted over the lip of the building, dropping to the ground and landing silently. She crept along the grounds, heading directly towards the CCT Tower.

A few guards were standing at attention outside, basic military personnel from Atlas. Cinder dashed along towards the tower, keeping out of sight as she drew closer and closer to the two guards. Eventually, she darted forwards behind the closest guard, jabbing her fist into the back of his neck, the blow connecting with where the skull meets the spine.

He slumped over almost immediately, body going limp as he fell. His partner spun quickly, trying to raise his rifle to protect himself. A heeled boot spun through the air, connecting with the rifle and sending it to the ground. He looked up, raising his fists for some form of defence, only to watch helplessly as Cinder leapt into the air, planting her feet on his chest and driving him into the ground.

The guard tried to get back to his feet after landing, but his assailant threw a quick punch to his throat, making him gasp in pain. Another blow rained down on the same spot. Then a third. Then a fourth, causing him to fall unconscious. Or maybe he was dead? It didn't really matter to her anyway.

She got back up to her feet, kicking the guards into the bushes where they were out of view. It took a few seconds to do so, but not nearly enough to delay her seriously. Silently opening the front door, Cinder slipped inside. She desisted her attempts at walking silently, her heels now clacking against the floor. A few more guards were standing inside, some of them looking up at the oddly dressed, cat burglar crossed with someone from a masquerade ball.

'Excuse me, no one's allowed in this area miss,' one of the guards called out calmly, getting much more nervous as she made no moves to leave. 'Miss, I need you to stop. Stop!'

The closest guard drew his gun on her, firing the sidearm rapidly. Cinder dodged and weaved through the bullets, reaching him in a matter of milliseconds. She jammed her palm against the side of his face, twisting his head sideways as she took hold of his pistol wielding arm with her other hand.

Kicking backwards on instinct, she felt her heel connect with the abdomen of another guard, the wind knocked out of him. She moved her hand towards the gun, adjusting its aim slightly before pulling the trigger, firing a round into the guard's chest.

Bringing her leg back around, she kicked into the grappled guard's knee, dropping him to the ground. Flipping across his back, Cinder took hold of the armour across his back, pulling with all her might through her motion and throwing the guard overhead into the metal railing that led up the set of stairs. His back hit the railing with a sharp crack before he dropped to the ground unmoving.

The six other guards in the room wasted no time at this point, drawing their batons from their waists and charging at Cinder. She spun in a circle, opening the vial of sand at her side and causing fire to erupt around her. The fire and sand merged together, forming a pair of wicked, curved, black glass blades.

She swung the first blade to connect with the first baton, pushing it out of the way and following up with a second strike across the guard's chest with her other blade. She brought the blade back around, pushing it towards the next guard, who held up his own baton to block the attack, just so the other blade could slice across his throat less than a second later.

The third guard swung his baton at her head, an attack which she easily ducked beneath. Dropping to her knees, she supported her weight with one hand before spinning on the spot, sweeping the guards legs from beneath him. Quickly rising back up, Cinder sliced her blade through his back, blocking a blow from behind with the other.

Spinning the clashing weapons around her body to be in a more advantageous position, Cinder stabbed the free blade into the guard's gut, before drawing it back out and slashing across another guard's chest. The only survivor charged her down, swinging his baton at her. Cinder crossed her blades, the baton glancing off of the sharp edge. She spun to the guard's other side as he delivered a back handed blow which also glanced off of her blades. The third strike made a direct hit with the blades, jarring the guard's shoulder from the impact, sending him staggering backwards.

He flicked a quick kick out at Cinder's abdomen, but was shocked when she sliced the blades across his leg, severing the foot from the rest of the limb. He didn't even have time to cry out in pain as Cinder spun one of the blades around in her hand, jabbing it around her back into his side. She spun on the spot once more, slashing the blades across his stomach, giving him two deep gashes across his front. Cockily strutting forwards, Cinder launched herself into a cartwheel as the guard struggled to get to his feet, slashing a blade down his face, splitting the front of his head in half.

The fight had lasted only a few second, Cinder's speed and skill easily outmatching their meagre military training. Strutting over to the elevator in the middle of the room, Cinder was about to press the call button when a ring sounded throughout the hall, and the doors opened to reveal nearly a dozen armed guards, obviously on their way down from one of the higher floors.

One of them attempted to step out of the elevator, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Cinder. His head turned as he took notice of the rest of the security personnel strewn across the floor in puddles of blood. Cinder took a step forwards and he took a step back. By now, everyone else had taken notice of the danger, and were holding their positions in the elevator, already reaching for their weapons.

Cinder strode into the lift with the rest of the guards, pressing the button relating to the highest floor and waiting patiently for the doors to close, holding her blades loosely in her hands. It took a few seconds before one of the guards made a move, stabbing his baton towards her back. Cinder spun on the spot, dodging the initial attack then swinging a blade down and severing his hand.

The rest of the guards scattered, drawing their batons and trying to move into a defensive stance. As useful as it would have been against regular criminals, Cinder was no regular criminal. She was a highly-trained warrior.

Cinder kicked out at the closest guard's knee, the heel of her boot stabbing against his kneecap, and from the cracking sound that resonated from the impact, it was highly likely she had just shattered it too. Good.

She threw a fist at the next guard's throat, pushing him backwards as he clutched at his windpipe. Another attempted to rush her from the other side, but she quickly threw an elbow into his face, knocking him backwards before stabbing a blade into his chest.

She kicked again, pushing her next assailant backwards into the rest of her opponents, causing them to stumble and almost fall over each other. Two rushed her from either side and she wasted no time in letting out two quick slashes, a blade carving a gouge across each of their throats. The pair fell to the ground almost immediately, clutching their throats as they tried to stop the blood flow.

She deflected a few strikes from the remaining guards, keeping them at bay for a few seconds before aiming both of her blades at a single guard. He raised his baton to block it, but the strength behind her attack ended up knocking him from his feet, sending him into the top corner of the lift where the metal crumpled around him as he made impact.

Cinder diverted a jab from one baton, pushing it sideways into one of the other adversaries, sticking her blade forwards into the attackers face before slicing horizontally, the blade cutting through the side of his head and across the other guard's face. She planted a foot against the dead man's chest, leaping into the air briefly to unleash a quick kick towards one of the remaining guard's heads, sending him spinning into the ground.

A quick flourish of her blade parried another baton strike, raising her leg she pinned him against the wall of the elevator, denting the metal side as he was pushed against it. She deflected a few more strikes quickly before stabbing a blade behind her into the pinned man's torso. Dropping to the ground, Cinder rolled across the uneven mound of slain enemies, slashing at the remaining assailant's legs, drawing blood and causing them to stagger before catching themselves and staying upright.

Leaping back to her feet, Cinder unleashed a quick uppercut with one of the blades, cutting a clean gash up his torso, throat and face. The final guard was no challenge either. She dodged his attack before driving both blades through his chest, pinning him to the wall before withdrawing both blades, allowing him to slide to the floor.

She allowed the dark blade to vanish into a flash of flames as the elevator reached the top floor with a soft ding. Cinder quickly strode out of the messy elevator, the doors closing behind her. She sauntered her way towards the main terminal in the room, taking a seat before accessing the terminal. Her fingers flew across the keypad, accessing the databases in the terminal at record speed before placing the drive containing the virus inside the port at the side of the terminal. She would have to thank Watts for designing the magnificent virus that he had supplied them.

'A party guest is leaving,' Emerald's voice cut the silence through the earpiece Cinder was wearing.

'Which one?' Cinder sighed in frustration.

Emerald took a few seconds to reply. 'Ironwood.'

'I guess the General has had enough fun for one night,' Mercury said. 'Should we intervene?'

Cinder smiled as the virus completed its upload. She removed the drive, then quickly rebooted the system, spreading the virus to every terminal in the CCT Tower. 'No, we're done here.'

Cinder stood from her seat, moving back around the terminal towards the elevator when she heard one of them rising towards her. She narrowed her eyes in frustration, who could this be? Emerald and Mercury hadn't warned her about anybody else, and Ironwood had only just left. She quickly ducked down behind the desk of the main terminal, glowing yellow eyes peeking around the corner to see who it was.

As the doors opened, she was greeted to the sight of one of the young students from Beacon Academy. Ruby Rose, if she wasn't mistaken. And she definitely wasn't mistaken, not with that monstrosity of a weapon in her hands.

'Hello?' Ruby called out, walking into the room cautiously. 'Is anyone there?'

Cinder pondered her options. She didn't want to have to reveal herself to anybody if she didn't have to, but if she tried to wait out the girl, she may end up in even more danger, especially if Ironwood came this way. She weighed up the two options, eventually settling for the lesser of two evils.

She smoothly stood up straight, turning her head slowly before stepping out into the open before Ruby. 'You know, it's not a masquerade party. So why don't you-'

Cinder wasn't intending on letting her finish that thought. Drawing a dust vial filled with sand, Cinder opened the vial ever so slightly. She swung her arm through the air, the sand spreading like a thick veil across her face. Drawing on the power within her, she ignited the sand particles, heating them up quickly until they were a liquid, then taking the heat back, leaving the sand as shards of glass. Cinder slammed her palm forwards, using her power again to force the shards towards the young girl.

Ruby's eyes opened in panic, spinning Crescent Rose in her palm to block the shards of glass, which shattered against her weapon on impact. She swung Crescent Rose around, firing the high calibre rounds at Cinder, who in turn blocked each shot with the power she had taken from Amber.

She spun backwards, imitating the same move as before, summoning her glass blades from the vial at her side. Ruby spun her scythe around, leaping towards Cinder and slamming the blade of Crescent Rose into the portion of floor where Cinder would have still been standing had she not jumped backwards out of the way.

Drawing on her abilities again, Cinder slammed the two blades together at the hilt, transforming the weapon into a makeshift bow, glass arrows forming as she drew it. She released the shot, firing the arrows at the young girl, who barely managed to dodge back and out of the way. Cinder landed gracefully, smirking at her opponent, who was giving her back a look of determination.

Unfortunately, Cinder didn't really have the time to play around. She needed to end this, and fast. Before she could think up a strategy however, Ruby charged her once more, swinging her scythe horizontally across Cinder's torso. The raven-haired criminal barely ducked beneath the curved blade, bouncing back up and swinging her blades at Ruby. The small girl raised Crescent Rose, blocking the strikes with the handle of her weapon. She pulled the trigger of her scythe, causing it to jolt backwards, nearly ripping Cinder's blades from her hands.

Ruby swung her scythe back around to try and hit Cinder once again. She dodged the blow, wrapping a leg around the handle of the scythe to prevent Ruby from using it to it's potential. Pulling on the scythe with all the strength in her leg, Cinder started to pull Ruby off balance. As soon as she stumbled slightly, Cinder raised her other leg kicking Ruby in the chest and sending her tumbling backwards. Cinder drew her bow once more, firing another set of arrows after Ruby, causing her to dash to the side to avoid the fiery explosion.

Whilst her opponent was distracted, Cinder took the opportunity to leap to the roof, melting the bolts on the sides of the metal vent leading into the air ducts before ripping it off of the wall and sliding into the hole in the wall. She silently pulled the grate back against the wall, heating up the metal to weld it back into place. Taking a quick glance into the room, it seemed that Ruby had not noticed where she had gone. Perfect.

Cinder started crawling through the air ducts, barely making a single sound. Having memorized the layout of the ventilation systems just in case something like this were to happen, Cinder found herself at a grate leading to outside the tower in a matter of seconds. Repeating the same process as before, Cinder made her way outside, leaping from the tower back down to the ground. She snuck around the courtyards, reaching the window leading into the girl's bathroom which Emerald had left open and climbing inside, landing inside on of the various cubicles.

Listening for a moment to check if anyone was inside, and being satisfied that nobody was, Cinder began to shift her outfit into an elegant, shimmering black ball gown. Although it wasn't quite her colour, the form fitting dress certainly helped show off her body in a positive way.

She stepped out of the cubicle, checking herself in the mirror to ensure there was no remaining blood on her person. Satisfied with her appearance, she barged out of the bathrooms, turning the corner briskly only to bump into someone else.

'Oh, I'm so sorry!' the student said, placing a hand on her shoulder to help keep her steady.

'No, it's my fault,' Cinder apologized, putting on a false smile for the boy. 'I should have been watching where I was going.'

'Well, no harm no foul, right?'

Cinder nodded, eyes narrowing as she suddenly recognised him. 'Wait. Aren't you the one who had that draw in the match with Pyrrha Nikos? Charles Arduin, am I correct?'

Charlie groaned lightly. 'I thought I was done with this.'

'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that,' Cinder interrupted.

'It's alright,' Charlie replied. 'It's not like you're the first person to do it.'

'Well, apologies anyway,' Cinder said, stepping around Charlie. 'I guess I'll see you around?'

'I guess so,' Charlie replied as Cinder sauntered away in search of Mercury and Emerald. Someone had to answer for how Ruby Rose managed to get to the tower without her knowing of it.

* * *

The night had been going perfectly. Yang had managed to persuade Blake to come, how she had done that she had no idea. All of her friends had been enjoying themselves all night, including Yang, even though she had promised that she would still make sure nothing went wrong. In the end, it was Weiss who had ended up having to do all of that. Though, she wasn't too sure she could really blame Yang, Neptune certainly had some charisma to him.

His dancing on the other hand…

Even Pyrrha had managed to get a happy ending to the night. Only a few hours into the night and somehow, she had finally managed to get Jaune to understand her feelings towards him. Well, Weiss assumed that's what had happened at least. The two had been dancing non-stop since they had first hit the dance floor, and they still didn't seem to be stopping any time soon.

Ruby had appeared to disappear though. She didn't blame the girl, seeing as the young girl hadn't really been that interested in the event in the first place. She was more interested in the upcoming tournament in the next few weeks.

Yes, everything had been running perfectly. It would have been nice to have come with somebody though…

'You're looking like you are having fun,' Weiss heard from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Charlie approaching.

'Ugh, what do you want?' Weiss snapped at him.

Charlie paused for a second, trying to ignore the hostility in her voice. 'I was coming over to see how you were doing, seeing as you've been all by yourself, all night.'

'No I haven't!' Weiss argued.

'Oh, I guess the person you've been hanging out with has the semblance of invisibility then?'

'Ha ha,' Weiss rolled her eyes.

'You do know that just because you are supposed to be organising this event, it doesn't mean that you can't have some fun too. You are allowed to dance as well.'

'And I suppose you're the one I'm going to dance with?'

'I could always ask Jaune to dance with you if you want?' Charlie teased, causing Weiss to roll her eyes once again. 'Although from what I've seen, it might be a bit difficult to separate him and Pyrrha right now.'

Weiss sighed, but held out her hand for Charlie to take. The dark-haired student took it, leading her to the dance floor, leading their dance as they joined the rest of the dancers mid-song.

'Can I ask you a question?' Charlie asked, receiving a eyeroll from Weiss, but it was shortly followed with a curt nod.

'It's been over four months since the year started now. Why do you still hate my sister and I so much?' Charlie questioned.

'I don't hate the two of you!' Weiss snapped angrily.

'Right, so the constant insults, snarky looks and never ending supply of disgusted faces and eyerolls are just how you show affection I guess?'

Weiss rolled her eyes and grunted in annoyance.

'Just like that actually.'

'Listen, it's not like I genuinely want to hate the two of you,' Weiss said. 'It's just that our families have spent such a long time as enemies, and we were never the greatest of friends before we came here, it's a bit difficult to see past that, even now.'

'Maybe it's time to move past that?' Charlie suggested.

Weiss sighed. 'You're right, I know that it's been petty of me to have kept these feelings towards you and Robyn, but old habits die hard I guess.'

'Maybe you need to look at us in a different way then? Instead of looking at the two of us as if we're Charles and Robyn Arduin, the twin children of the biggest competitor with your family business, look at us as Charlie and Robyn Arduin, the twin students at Beacon Academy, training to be able to one day save the world with you.'

Weiss stared directly at him, her deep blue eyes meeting his smouldering red irises. 'That sounds stupid.'

'I'm just saying, if what you said is true, you don't like us because of who we were to you before Beacon. But here, we're different people really. I'm not saying that we have to be best friends, but it would be nice if we weren't always at each other's throats.'

Weiss was silent for a few moments, dipping her head in thought. 'I guess that's fair. I have been hard on you two, and it wasn't right for me to do that.'

Weiss turned her face up to look him in the eyes once again. 'I promise, from now on, I'll be nicer to the two of you.'

Charlie smiled at the heiress. 'Thank you.'

The pair continued their dance, and as the song came to an end, Charlie moved to let Weiss be, only to be stopped as she grabbed hold of his arm. 'Would you, would you mind dancing for a bit longer?'

Charlie nodded, moving back and beginning a new dance with his new friend. As the rest of the night went on, the two remained on the dance floor, dancing together for the rest of the evening.

* * *

 **Once again, sorry for the late upload, my bad, hopefully it won't happen again.**

 **See you next week! :D**


	7. Chapter 7: The Day of World Peace

\- Chapter 7 -

\- The Day of World Peace -

The next morning was lucky to be graced by Charlie's presence. He was only woken up less than an hour before midday by his sister after she got frustrated by his lack of waking up. It wasn't his fault really, he hadn't gotten back until very late the previous night, having spent the entire night at the ball.

His sister didn't care if he had a legitimate reason for sleeping in, seeing as today was the anniversary of the day that all the nations of Remnant united after the Great War. It was an extremely important day across the world, no matter where you were born, or what style of life you followed. It was especially important for all huntsmen and huntresses, whether professional or in training, as it was the day that they took on missions to protect Remnant. For first year students, this would be their first mission ever.

Which was the exact reason why Robyn was so mad that he was sleeping in…

'Get up!' his twin shouted, pulling the pillow from under his head and hitting him across the face with it. 'The ceremony is starting in half an hour! I'm not missing out on one of the good missions because you were out late last night making kissy face with Weiss Schnee!'

'I was not making 'kissy face' with Weiss,' Charlie mumbled, trying to turn over in his bed only to be pulled back onto his side by his sister.

'Not while we were there at least,' Misty teased, giving her partner a wink.

'And not while you weren't there either,' Charlie replied, Misty still not believing him however.

'I don't really care, just get up! I thought you were supposed to be the Team Leader, why am I the one getting you up?!' Robyn yelled at him again, pulling on his arm to try and get him out of the bed.

'Alright, fine, I'm up!' Charlie shouted back, tearing his arm free from his sisters grip before rolling out of his bed, making his way into the adjoined bathroom to prepare for the day.

'You don't actually think he… you know?' Hannah asked, eyes not leaving her scroll as she continued reading something on the small device.

'Oh, hell no,' Robyn immediately replied, shaking her head as she desperately tried to dispel the image of her brother and Weiss getting… intimate. 'As charming as he can be, Weiss hates the two of us, there's no way that it could have happened.'

'Maybe she just doesn't like you?' Misty asked. 'Two rich girls from opposing families, that was destined to never work out. Charlie on the other hand…'

'Alright, alright, I get it!' Robyn begged the blond to stop. 'Charlie is really popular with the ladies, we get it.'

'And yet you're the twin with a lady,' Hannah smiled, sending a glance towards her partner.

Misty let out a loud gasp, clasping her hand across her mouth. 'What if all those times that Charlie disappeared to go study, he was actually with a girl?!'

Robyn gave her a flat stare. 'You are determined to put that image in my mind, aren't you?'

'Hey, you're the one thinking it,' Misty shrugged with a smile, drawing a growl from Robyn.

'New topic,' Hannah interjected before the two could start a fight. 'What sort of mission do you want to pick up?'

'Something interesting obviously!' Misty replied. 'We gotta get out of Vale, into the countryside to do something out in the wilds!'

'I agree. As important as it can be to do work in the Kingdom, we need to have some excitement at some point,' Robyn added.

'Then again, anything is exciting after spending so long in Professor Ports class,' Hannah joked, causing the other two girls to laugh in response. A few minutes later, and a few lengths of the room paced by Robyn as she awaited her brother, Charlie finally stepped out of the bathroom.

'Ugh, finally!' Robyn said in exasperation, taking hold of his shoulder and yanking him towards the door. 'Come on, we don't want to be late!'

The four made their way across the campus towards the auditorium, where all the other students, both from Beacon and the other academies, had gathered for the beginning of the event. The whole room was filled with vibrant colours, each student wearing their own clothing rather than the typical school uniforms that most people had been used to seeing since the exchange students had arrived.

Robyn led them over to the section of the hall where all of the Beacon students had gathered, grouping up with both Team RWBY and Team Juniper. Ruby turned on the spot, giving the four of them her usual jolly smile and wave, along with the rest of their friends giving their own acknowledgements as they arrived. As much as she wished it didn't happen, Robyn couldn't help but noticed the small smile Weiss shared with her brother.

The loud chatter that echoed throughout the hall quickly dispersed as Professor Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin approached the centre of the stage, the former speaking out loudly, asking for quiet, something which was quickly achieved. Professor Ozpin took to the microphone, leaning on his cane as he stared out across the students, examining them all slowly, eyes apparently lingering around their group of friends for a few seconds longer than everyone else.

'Today, we stand together, united. Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four Kingdoms of Remnant,' Ozpin began his speech. 'On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself.'

'We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware, that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: colour. It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither were the generations to come. And it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity.'

'As I have said, today we stand together, united. But this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, Huntsmen and Huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best.'

The students clapped as Ozpin finished speaking, giving them all a slight nod as he made his way from the stage. Before anybody could say anything, Robyn had grabbed hold of all of the members of Team CHRM and started dragging them towards one of the mission boards spread throughout the hall.

'No need to get so handsy!' Misty growled, ripping her jacket free from Robyn's grasp. 'You might make Hannah jealous!'

Robyn ignored her comment, instead scanning the mission board to see what was available. 'So, what do you guys want to do?'

'Kingdom Border Patrol obviously,' Charlie smirked, receiving a punch to the shoulder from his sister.

'What about a Bounty mission?' Misty asked, pointing towards a mission on the top right corner of the board. 'Blighton village requires assistance in removing a Grimm from the area.'

'Could you get any more basic?' Hannah asked. 'If we wanted to do a bounty mission, we could make one up and go kill any old Grimm in the Emerald Forest.'

'We could shadow sheriffs in the kingdom for a week,' Charlie joked, smiling as he got the same reaction from his sister.

'Village Guard? Spend the week as guardians for a village, protecting it from any Grimm that get too close.'

'What if nothing happens though?' Hannah asked. 'We'd spend a week protecting a village but not actually doing anything.'

'Investigation and Reconnaissance?' Charlie asked, pointing to one on the next board.

Robyn slipped over, reading through the details of the mission. 'Carston village of Sanus, near Lake Visra requires assistance in determining the cause of the fouling of the village's water. High Grimm activity in the area. Students would leave immediately. This sounds promising! Good find brother!'

'Oh, so now you accept my ideas?' Charlie rolled his eyes.

'Well, it would be good for experience,' Hannah nodded. 'It's giving a lot of field work in lots of different areas that we would use as professional hunters.'

'Yeah, let's do it!' Misty said, pumping her fist in the air. Charlie nodded in acknowledgement, tapping on the mission icon and inputting their team name into the pop up box. After hitting enter, a quick notification appeared on the screen, indicating the mission had been assigned to them. They smiled in excitement, Misty even going so far as to bounce up and down rapidly on the balls of her feet.

Their scrolls buzzed in all of their pockets, the twins pulling theirs out and opening the notification sent to them regarding the mission they had been given. The pair scrolled through the information, nodding quickly as they read through it quickly.

'Alright guys, by the looks of it, when it said immediately, it actually meant immediately,' Charlie said, putting his scroll back into the pocket inside his jacket. 'We should go grab some things then head straight out to the docks to get out of here.'

'Roger that partner!' Misty gave him a salute, turning on her heel and leading the team back to their dorm room. Robyn stopped halfway through the hall, catching Ozpin finish speaking with Team RWBY, all of whom were smiling ecstatically with each other. She slipped away from her team, silently heading over to the girls.

'Special talk from the headmaster? What's going on there guys?' Robyn asked with a smile, nudging Yang's arm.

'What?! Oh, uh, nothing!' Ruby stammered unconvincingly.

'Right. So, what mission did you guys choose?' Robyn asked.

'Search and Destroy,' Yang said, punching one fist into her other hand. 'We're gonna go kill some Grimm!'

'To put it simply,' Weiss rolled her eyes.

'What about you guys? What did you choose?' Ruby asked.

'Investigation and Reconnaissance,' Robyn replied.

'Reconawhat?'

'They go looking for information or something important in an area,' Weiss informed her partner.

'Ohhh.'

'What are you going to be looking for?' Yang asked.

'All water sources in the area around the village we're going to have been fouled apparently. They need someone to find out what's causing it, seeing as it takes too much time and lien to get water from other villages.'

'Sounds, interesting…' Yang replied unenthusiastically.

'There's also lots of Grimm in the nearby area.'

'Much more my speed,' Yang grinned.

'Well, I better get moving,' Robyn spoke. 'We're leaving as soon as possible.'

'We are too! Maybe we'll meet you all down at the docks?'

'Sure, maybe! See you guys around!' Robyn called out as she dashed out the door towards her dorm room. She caught up with the rest of the team quickly, settling into the same pace they were walking at.

'Where did you go?' Hannah asked as her partner appeared next to her.

'Just said hi to Ruby and the others,' Robyn replied. 'They're going to be leaving around the same time as us, so we might see them on the way out.'

Misty pushed the door leading into the dorm building for the rest of the team, following them through the hallways, up the flights of stairs until they were back in their dorm room. She didn't even bother closing the door behind them when they got there, seeing as they were quite literally going to be leaving within the next few minutes.

'Alright, we don't want to take too much guys,' Charlie ordered, picking up the small bag that Beacon had provided every student on their first day. 'Grab the sleeping bags, spare ammo if you need it, lien. Misty, no spare clothes.'

'What? Why?'

'I don't think we're really going to have the time to be changing our outfits. What we're wearing now will be fine.'

'I meant the sleeping bags,' Misty replied. 'We're going to a village after all.'

'You never know, we might have to head out into the wilds,' Charlie responded.

'And what about when we're sleeping?' Misty asked.

'We sleep in our clothes,' Charlie replied, shoving the necessities into his bag, Misty grumbling in annoyance behind him. Robyn and Hannah followed his lead, picking up their basics and storing it inside their bags. Robyn made for her desk, going through the various arrows she had been creating in her spare time, checking for the best ones to take with her.

In a few quick minutes, the entire team had loaded up their bags with what they needed, and were heading out the door to grab their gear from their lockers. Charlie closed the door behind them, locking it with his scroll before the four of them took off in the direction of the locker room.

'So, what do you think the hunter we'll be shadowing is like?' Hannah asked.

'Well, we're doing recon, right? So, they're probably more of a stealthy person. We're going for info, not going after a threat,' Robyn answered.

'High Grimm activity though, remember?' Misty reminded them. 'They have to be able to defend themselves pretty well if they're going to be there.'

'Whichever of the two, I'd prefer it if they were a huntsman. No offense, but we've got enough girls on this team already,' Charlie said, receiving a few eye rolls.

'Well, you've just jinxed yourself there,' Misty laughed as Robyn gave him a slug on the shoulder.

It didn't take them long to grab their weapons and stowing them on their persons. Afterwards, the team made their way to the docks, where the rest of their friends were grouped. They joined the cluster, forming the last side to the square of teams that they had formed.

'Team RWBY is going on world-saving missions without us guys!' Nora wailed, pointing at the team of girls, false tears in her eyes.

'World saving? What kind of mission did you four take?!' Hannah asked in confusion, to which Ruby simply laughed softly, scratching the back of her head.

'It's an exaggeration,' she whispered. 'We're just heading out of the kingdom, clearing out some Grimm and all.'

'What about the rest of you?' Charlie asked.

'We're shadowing a crime-specialist!' Sun exclaimed. 'We get junior detective badges and everything!'

'And we're going out to shadow a sheriff in a nearby village,' Ren answered for Jaune, who was too busy being awestruck after Sun's comment about the badges.

'You're all staying pretty close to the kingdom then,' Misty commented.

'Yeah. What about you four?' Sage asked, giving her a smile.

'Quite far,' Charlie replied. 'We're headed to Carston, a small village near Lake Visra.'

'Wow, getting a bit far away from Vale there aren't you guys?' Nora said.

'Yeah, which is why we're heading out as soon as possible.'

'Well-' Ruby began speaking, before being interrupted by what seemed to be Doctor Oobleck dashing out of one of the nearby bullheads, calling out for them to hurry. 'Well, good luck everyone!'

The sixteen students gave a few smiles to each other, wishing everyone good luck on their missions, particularly towards Teams RWBY and CHRM. Misty gave Sage a hug worthy of Yang, whilst Neptune gave the brawler in question a kiss on the forehead and a quick fist bump before they went their separate ways.

'Be safe out there,' Weiss said to Charlie as he turned to leave. 'Carston is quite far away, which means things are a lot more dangerous.'

Charlie gave her a quick nod in reply. 'You look after yourself as well.'

The two exchanged a pair of small smiles, before Charlie turned, calling his team to his side, and the four made their way into the bullhead which awaited them. They clambered aboard, taking their seats along the inside walls of the ship as Charlie knocked on the door to the cockpit to let the pilot know they were ready to go. The engines whined as they came to life, the ship starting to buzz as it began to rise from the platform, Charlie taking his own seat next to his partner.

'So, I know we just sat down, but these seats are really uncomfortable,' Misty whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over the whine of the engines. 'How long is this flight gonna take?'

'It's an eight-hour flight to Carston,' Charlie replied, loud enough for all of his teammates to hear. 'So, you might as well try to get comfortable.'

His partner grumbled, shifting in the hard seat to try and find a better way of sitting. Robyn and Hannah shifted in their seats, pressing their shoulders together and resting their heads against each other. Charlie smiled at the two, before turning back to his partner.

'Want to play rock, paper, scissors?' he asked the blond girl. 'We've only got eight hours to go.'

* * *

After eight hours of flying, and far too many games of rock, paper, scissors, the pilot's voice came across the P.A system, informing them that they were approaching Carston, and would be landing in a few moments.

'Ugh, finally!' Misty said, throwing up her hands in the air at the good news. 'I've had enough of this damn ship!'

'You're just mad cause you lost every game you played,' Hannah smirked at the blond.

'Of course I lost, Charlie cheated!' Misty howled at the fox faunus.

'I did not!' Charlie defended himself, holding a hand across his heart with a look of shock across his face.

'Yes, you did!'

'Prove it!'

Misty glared at her partner, rolling her eyes as his grin grew wider. As soon as the bullhead made contact with the ground once more, Misty stormed over to the side door, quickly opening it before leaping out into Carston. The rest of Team Chrome followed suit, albeit with much less anger, and a little more grace. Charlie yelled a quick thanks to the pilot, unsure if he heard him or not however.

The trip had taken long enough that by the time they had finally arrived, the village of Carston was already under the starry sky of night. Light posts decorated the streets, giving off enough light to see in the dark of night. A few people were still milling about, whether they were closing up stores for the day, out walking with friends, or making their way towards the nearby inn, which was already full of rowdy people.

What stuck out the most from the rest of the mundane life in the village however, was the figure standing near the landing pads, dressed in a mixture of grey and silver clothing. A silver shirt with grey flecks and designs hung from the shoulders, held up across the neck with black straps. The sleeves meet dark leather vambraces, grey gloves poking out of the ends to protect the wearers hands from the cold. Knee high leather boots covered a pair of dark blue tights, and a thick, black, furry sash hung from the hip, curling across the back of the waist before dropping downwards, the very end hanging a few inches from the ground. Long silver hair was pulled back into a lazy ponytail, and a pair of vibrant blue eyes cut through the night to observe the four of them.

'Welcome to Carston,' the huntress said in an almost sing-song voice. 'I'm Tina Halloren, it's good to meet you all.'

'Charles Arduin,' Charlie introduced himself, shaking her hand. 'This is the rest of my team. Robyn, my sister, her partner Hannah, and my partner Misty.'

Tina's eyes glanced over the four of them quickly. 'It's good to finally meet you. I've heard a few things from some friends of mine who are still at Beacon. Apparently the four of you are quite the force to be reckoned with in the combat ring.'

'Well, don't want to brag or anything, but yeah, we're pretty awesome,' Misty joked, giving off a radiant smile.

'To be honest, when Professor Ozpin contacted me about opening this mission up for students to join in on, I originally requested that whichever team were to join to be in their second year. Third and fourth year students go on missions without a hunter to shadow, so they were out of the equation, but I wasn't confident that a first-year team would be able to handle this. We made a deal that it would only be accessible to certain teams, such as yourselves. I'm hoping that my trust in you won't be misplaced?'

'You don't have to worry about us Ms Halloren,' Robyn smiled. 'We're normally very good at following orders.'

'Please, call me Tina. And following orders isn't what I'm concerned about,' Tina responded. 'I'm worried about whether you can make the right choice if I can't give you an order.'

Nobody replied to her comment, Robyn even nodding gently before turning her head to the ground, scuffing her boot against the concrete before Tina let out a sigh. 'But, let's not think about that tonight. It's late, so we won't get started until tomorrow morning. Let's go grab something to eat, talk a little bit, then we'll get underway tomorrow.'

The group made their way into the inn, making their way to an unoccupied table as Tina made her way up to the bar to order them something to eat and drink, as well as get the keys for their rooms. Loud music filled the air, as well as the idle chatter of everyone else inside. A few minutes later and Tina returned to the table, balancing plates of food and drinks in her arms, setting them on the table without issue.

'Alright, dig in kids,' she said happily, already digging into her own meal. The members of Team CHRM happily obliged, mimicking her actions. After spending so long eating the food at Beacon, the twins had almost forgotten what it was like to eat good food. Everything that Beacon served was perfectly edible of course, but when hundreds upon hundreds of dishes had to be made every day, there was a lack of care put into its making. The cooks in the back of the inn however, they were making food for paying customers, so they actually put some effort into their work.

In simple terms, the food tasted amazing. As such, it didn't take long to wolf it down.

'Now that you're all fed, I want to quickly go over what we're doing tomorrow,' Tina said, moving her plate to the side before taking a swig of her drink, leaning forwards so to be easier to hear over the noisy atmosphere. 'As I'm sure you all read, something is fouling the villages water supplies. It could be something really simply, but in my experience, nothing ever is.'

'To start off, I'm going to have us all go down into the underground rivers that run beneath the village. We'll see if there's anything down there that could be causing it. This could be anything from offshoots of a sewage system that leaked down there, to some newly formed dust crystals which might be affecting the water through radiation, maybe someone accidentally fell down a well and died down there. Worse comes to worse, maybe a Grimm is down there and is contaminating it.'

'And what if we can't find anything down there?' Hannah asked. 'If what you said is true, these things are never so simple, so what if there's nothing down there that is causing it?'

'Then we continue moving along,' Tina answered. 'Most of the underground rivers in Sanus all link to some surface water somewhere. The closer towards the sea you get, the more likely they come from there. A town like Carston however, all of the underground rivers in this area come from Lake Visra. So, if there's nothing down there, we'll follow the river up to the surface, heading along the river to see if we find anything between the village and the Lake.'

'And if there's nothing between here and the Lake?' Robyn asked, almost dreading the answer.

'At that point, the task gets a lot more difficult,' Tina replied. 'If whatever is causing this comes from Lake Visra, it becomes a lot more difficult to track down whatever is causing this. If you came unprepared of course.'

Tina proceeded to reach into a small pouch on the side of her hip, drawing forth a few small vials of a black liquid. 'This is finely distilled and refined tar dust hybrid. You'd normally use it for purposes such as slowing movement, maybe stopping something in its tracks entirely, or making it easier to set things on fire.'

'In this state however, the tar dust is fine enough, that if you mix it with the right ingredients, which I'm not going into detail about because it's a very long-winded process, will cling to anything that it isn't designed for. This batch for example, whilst creating it I made sure that it was set to be compatible with water. Therefore, if we sprinkle some of it into water, it clings to everything else that isn't water.'

'Using it to track where the contamination comes from,' Charlie concluded. 'Why not just head straight to Lake Visra and see if that's where it comes from though?'

'Unlike you and your sister, we aren't all so well off,' Tina replied. 'This stuff is really expensive to make, this batch alone cost a couple thousand lien, and took me the last few days to perfect. Plus, after all of that, I only got four vials out of it. No, if we go straight there and it turns out that whatever is contaminating it doesn't originate from the Lake, then I'd have just chucked roughly fourteen hundred lien down the drain.'

'Fair point,' Charlie admitted.

'Now, Lake Visra is really big, so it would still take a long time to search it, and I don't have anywhere near enough dust to cover the whole thing. So, what we're going to be doing, is a little bit of math.'

'Ughhh,' Misty moaned. 'I thought I was done with that crap!'

'Alright, all of us except you Ms Mauve will do some math then,' Tina rolled her eyes. 'If we head to different corners of the lake, preferably only three corners so that we can save a vial, emptying one at each corner, we can determine the general area the contamination is coming from by measuring the consistency of the dust, as well as general water movement. It's likely that the stronger the consistency, the closer the origin point is. Looking at different spots, we can triangulate where it's likely to come from.'

'What if the contamination comes from the sea though?' Hannah asked. 'We definitely can't find something out there!'

'Any sea contamination has little to no effect to land water,' Tina answered. 'The change from salt to freshwater somehow removes nearly all contaminants. That's why all those large aquatic Grimm in the seas don't affect all of our water supplies across Remnant.'

'Quick question,' Misty interrupted. 'If the origin point is somewhere in the middle of the lake, how are we supposed to get to it? Are we going to swim out there?'

'No, we'll use a boat of course. There's an old fishing platform nearby, it should still have some boats there.'

'Good. Some of us have a bit of extra weight which makes swimming a little more difficult,' Misty replied, gesturing towards her bust, at which point the rest of her team rolled their eyes in amusement.

'I'll be sure to get a boat strong enough to carry the, extra weight then,' Tina joked, checking her scroll for the time. 'It's late, I want to get started early tomorrow morning. Get to sleep, and I want to meet you down here by dawn.'

The silver haired huntress proceeded to hand out keys to the rest of the team, a room for each set of partners. Charlie and Robyn took one of the keys each, whilst the rest of the group picked up their bags from the floor, slinging them over their shoulders again. They moved upstairs, following the doors numbers until they reached their respective rooms, Charlie and Misty being in room 108, whilst Robyn and Hannah were next door in 106. Tina continued down the corridor, claiming that her room was further down.

'We'll see you two tomorrow then,' Charlie said, nodding towards his sister and her partner. 'Try to sleep well.'

'Yeah, no need to stay up all night ladies,' Misty winked slyly, following Charlie into their shared room as Robyn and Hannah blushed lightly before heading into their own rooms to sleep the night off.

* * *

The next morning had Charlie waking up the rest of his team for once. Misty had been less than pleased as he woke her up during the 'dark ages' as she put it. The naming was likely due to the fact that there was still no light in the sky, as the sun had not yet crossed the horizon.

After convincing her to get out of the bed, Charlie took out some extra dust cartridges from his bag, slotting them into the pockets lining the interior of his coat, just in case. He picked up his belt from the table, tying it around his waist, ensuring it was sitting correctly before slotting his blades into their horizontal sheaths.

Misty followed suit after him, strapping her axe across her back and filling the pouch strapped to her leg with some additional rounds for her railgun. As the two finished preparing for the day, Misty decided to speak to him again after waking her.

'So, being serious now, cause it was avoided back at Beacon, what is going on between you and Weiss?'

Charlie sighed in response. 'Nothing is going on between the two of us. I told her that our strange family rivalries were pointless here, and there wasn't much reason for her to still try to ignore my sister and I.'

'Really, that's it?'

'Yes Misty, that's it.'

'So that cute little glance you two gave each other before we all left was just my imagination I guess?' Misty teased, smiling as Charlie paused halfway through tying his boots.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' was his reply.

'If you say so,' Misty rolled her eyes, happy enough with the fact that she managed to disturb him.

A few minutes later, Charlie left the room, silently knocking on his sister's door. She answered shortly, already fully dressed and ready, bar her quiver of arrows, which she was still organising as the pair were in her hands.

'Just a minute,' she said softly. 'Hannah is almost done. We'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes.'

Charlie nodded to his sister, turning as Misty left their room and locked the door. The pair made their way downstairs, where Tina was already waiting at a table, breakfast already on the table ready for them.

'Good morning,' she greeted them as they sat down. 'Where's the rest of your team?'

'Still getting ready,' Misty answered for Charlie, already pulling a plate towards herself. 'They're just a few minutes away apparently.'

'Good, the sooner we can get this started the better,' the huntress replied.

It only took a few more minutes before the rest of Team CHRM made their way downstairs, taking seats at the table as well. Tina allowed them a few moments to begin eating, before leaning forwards slightly, enough to gain their attention.

'Now, I want you four to listen to me. Today, I want the four of you to remain close as much as possible. When we go into the underground rivers, there won't be much we can do, seeing as we need to try and split up to cover ground. I would normally have you keep your scrolls on an open call, but I doubt you would get much signal down there.'

'That's why I'm going to have us split into two groups. Your leader and I will start from the Southern side of the city, and the rest of you will start in the North. We will meet at the junction that leads back out of the city. You'll recognise it because there's a metal grate to keep out Grimm. Am I understood?'

Team CHRM gave nods of understanding, each in various states of eating their breakfast, in some cases with a bit of food hanging from their mouths still. A few minutes later and the group were heading out of the inn, Charlie and Tina heading for a well in the South of Carston, whilst the three girls headed to one in the North. Upon reaching it, the three peered down, Misty dropping a pebble and listening for the splash when it hit the bottom. Several seconds passed before they heard it.

'Damn, I knew this village was on top of a hill, but that's a little ridiculous,' Misty commented. 'We got a safer way down than just jumping in?'

Robyn rolled her eyes, drawing her bow and pulling an arrow from her quiver. She fired it into the ground, the customary thin wire running from the back of the shaft, leading back towards the girl. 'Just follow me down when I shout.'

And with that, still clutching onto the wire, Robyn vaulted over the edge of the well, plummeting several feet before tightening her grip, rappelling down the inside of the well. It took nearly half a minute before she finally reached the bottom, feet splashing into the cold water which nearly reached her waistline. Taking a quick glance around, she hadn't thought about how dark it would be down there.

'Alright come down guys!' she called out, moving out of the way whilst drawing a dust crystal from her pouch. It took her several seconds as she struggled not to drop any of the various crystals into the water, finally dragging out a pale and faded yellow crystal. Pulsing her aura into it, the dust lit up filling the cavern with a bright light.

Several passages branched off from the small chamber she had dropped into, each going in different directions. Robyn tried to see where they led to, but the light dust had too short a range, and anything further than twenty feet ahead of her was pitch black. Instead of moving off on her own, she waited patiently as the other two members of her team climbed down her rope arrow, landing in the deep water alongside her. Due to their heights, the water wasn't anywhere near as deep to them as it was to Robyn, although it was still a lot higher than any of them would have preferred.

'Alright, which way?' Misty asked, glancing around them at the different passages.

'Tina said that the water came in through a grate to the East. If the water is flowing into here, I doubt that whatever is causing the contamination would be downstream,' Hannah muttered, eyes glancing at the movement of the water. 'If I were to hazard a guess, our best bet would be that way, it's the only path where the water leads towards us.'

The faunus pointed down one of the paths, her gauntleted hands gently catching the light from the crystal Robyn was holding. Misty patted her on the back, waving Robyn ahead seeing as she was carrying the light.

The trio began moving through the water, stopping at every junction whilst Hannah determined which path they should take. However, they saw no sign of whatever was causing the contamination. After what felt like forever, the current started to pick up slightly, something which worried the girls. The sound of rushing water started echoing through the tunnels, and before long, they discovered where it was coming from.

Ahead was a steep slope where the water was pouring down, leading into their own tunnel, as well as another one adjacent to them. Robyn peered around the corner, nothing of interest catching her eye however. Glancing back to the slope, she passed the crystal to Misty before drawing her bow once again, aiming her next arrow at a cluster of rocks near the top of the slope. Loosing it, the arrow flew true, striking her target and digging into the stone, the wire trailing back to her. Slinging her bow across her back, Robyn took the crystal back from Misty, holding on tightly as she began to pull herself through the current.

'You two stay here! Misty, you come next. Hannah, you can see in the dark, so help her out if you can. You'll have to go last sorry.'

Hannah nodded, keeping a hand on Misty's shoulder to prevent her from wandering off, just in case. Robyn held the crystal in her teeth, straining her legs as she began walking up the slope, fighting the water every step of the way, each one feeling like a marathon in itself. Regardless of the effort she had to put into it, she was doing well.

And of course, because karma's a bitch, at the exact moment she thought that, a spray of water dislodged her arrow from the rock, and suddenly there was nothing supporting her. Panicking, Robyn flailed her arms, trying to find anything to hold onto, but to no avail. Falling backwards, Robyn landed in the water, the currents pulling her back down the hill, the impact knocking the crystal from her teeth. She struggled under the surface before managing to breach it, spluttering as she gasped in air.

'Robyn!' she heard Hannah cry out, but not from the direction she had been expecting. Hannah had sounded like she was ahead of her, but so did the sound of the water. That's when she heard the same sound behind her, and with panic, realised she must have slid down the other path. And that noise she was hearing, was likely another waterfall, one she was about to go over by the sounds of it.

Scrabbling for any sort of handhold, Robyn desperately tried to slow herself down, to no avail. Just when she thought she was a goner, and hand gripped onto her own, and the sound of metal cutting into rock filled the air. Not a second later, she felt herself slide of the edge of a large drop, half of her body dangling over the edge.

'I got you!' Hannah grunted, straining to pull her partner from the ledge. Glancing downwards, Robyn could see the light of her crystal vanishing into the darkness below, and with worry, realised that as the light kept getting smaller and smaller, if she had gone over the edge, aura or not, there likely wouldn't have been much left of her afterwards.

Scrambling onto Hannah's back, Robyn called out to Misty, asking her to catch the next arrow. Spending a quick moment to strap a spare wire onto the end of another arrow, she let out of a pulse of her aura, igniting the arrows tip before firing it in the direction Hannah was pointing. A few seconds later and she could see Misty holding onto the shaft in the flickering light of the fire. Working together, the two teammates made their way back to the blond girl, panting heavily as they made their way around the corner, and out of the powerful current.

'Well, that didn't go to plan,' Robyn gasped. 'What do we do now?'

The three stood in silence for a moment, before Hannah groaned and slammed her palm into her face. 'I'm stupid, Robyn, give me one of those fire arrows.'

Robyn obliged, passing over the projectile her partner asked for, then screaming in panic as Hannah strode out into the currents… only for her partner to be unaffected. It took a second before it hit her, Hannah was using her semblance, phasing through the water so that it wouldn't affect her. A few minutes later, and Hannah lit the crystal at the top of the hill, arm outstretched towards the two of them. Robyn drew her bow, firing an arrow at her partner, who deftly caught it in one hand.

Even when working together, it still took several minutes and several near slips, before they reached the top of the slope, Hannah pulling the two over and onto the rock she had been standing on.

'Alright, it's official, you are the MVP of this mission so far Hannah,' Misty complimented, stretching gently after the long climb.

'No problem,' the faunus replied. 'Come on, stay close to me. Unless you have another light crystal in your pouch, I'm the only one who can see right now.'

Robyn shook her head, knowing full well that she only had the one. Even one of the various fire crystals she had in her pouch would be useless, as they would only last a few minutes themselves. Instead, the two human students trailed closely behind Hannah, trusting that she wouldn't lead them astray. It took the better part of another eternity before something interesting happened. A light red glow appeared in the distance, not quite vibrant enough to be a Grimm's eye, but after however long it had been in complete darkness, the light was a welcoming sight. Following the light, the three kept their weapons ready. As they grew closer, they realised that the light was flickering softly, and coming from around the next corner up ahead.

Dashing around the corner, weapons raised and prepared to fight, their eyes came across the unexciting sight of Charlie and Tina standing near the grate, evidently waiting for them to arrive. Charlie was holding one of his daggers aloft, the blade wreathed in a red flame to allow the two to see.

'There you are,' Charlie huffed. 'I thought you might have gotten lost or something.'

'No, your sister almost took a tumble into the core of the planet though,' Misty replied, sheathing her axe across her back.

'What?!'

'Don't worry, I'm fine!' Robyn insisted, failing to dispel his look of worry however. 'I'll tell you about it later.'

'Did you find anything?' Tina asked.

'Nothing but waterfalls and big rocks,' Hannah replied. 'What about you two?'

'Nothing. So, onwards we go,' Tina said, waving towards the grate that stood before them.

Robyn was about to ask how they were to get through solid iron, when Charlie swept his blade across the tops and bottoms of the bars, severing them and granting them a passage through.

'Isn't that grate what was keeping Grimm out of here?' Robyn asked as they began to step through the hole her brother had cut.

'Don't worry, I'll fix it,' her twin grumbled, drawing his other dagger and pressing it into her palm. 'Take that, it'll help you see slightly. I'll follow you once I've got this fixed.'

She nodded in response, igniting the blade as he began to pick up the bars, using the heat from his blade to weld the bars back into the grate. She and Hannah took to the front, leading the group forwards. Compared to the rest of the time they had spent in these tunnels so far, it felt like much less time passed before they began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as they got closer, relief flooded her system as she recognised it as sunlight. The four exited the tunnels into fresh air, exiting from a cave in the side of a cliff face.

The four took a quick rest, sitting on some nearby rocks as they awaited the last member of their team to make his way out of the cave, passing around Charlie's blade in an attempt to use the fire to somewhat dry their clothes. Robyn only agreed to this idea after everyone swore they wouldn't tell Charlie, sure that he'd be upset if he ever learnt his weapon was being used as a glorified clothes dryer. The four had managed to semi dry off by the time Charlie finally emerged. Although Tina wanted to get moving, they agreed to give him a few minutes to dry off before leaving.

Although they had been in the wilds before, it had only been the immediate forest areas around Beacon Academy, which in comparison to these wooded areas further away from civilization, seemed like well-kept nature parks. Hours passed as the team followed the river, eyes open for anything odd in or around the water. Finally, by the time the sun was sitting directly above them, they came across exactly what Tina hadn't wanted to come across.

Lake Visra.

The huntress let out a frustrated growl, kicking a nearby pebble into the lake, watching as it bounced across the surface twice before sinking below the water. 'I guess we'll have to use the dust then. We won't do it here, seeing as we know this area is already contaminated. We'll head out to three other points. I'll head to the old fishing platform on the other side and try from over there. Charlie and Misty, you two head to that spot.'

Tina pointed towards a small peninsula poking into the lake slightly to the North, before turning her head and pointing in the opposite direction. 'Hannah, Robyn, you two use the dust in the water near that old tree.'

Robyn glanced down the shoreline, spotting the tree she was talking about easily. It probably stood a good three times taller and five times as thick as any of the other trees around.

'I'll call you all when I'm at my point,' Tina instructed. 'Video call preferably. I need to see what sort of concentration we're looking at. Is that clear?'

The four students nodded, Tina smiling happily. 'Good, let's move!'

The silver haired huntress immediately took off into a jog along with Charlie and Misty, heading along the Northern side of the lake, whilst Hannah began to sprint off along the Southern edge. Robyn however, froze solid, eyes locked with the image that appeared from behind Tina's head after the huntress had moved.

Slick black skin breaching the surface of the water with a single white bone mask. Three red eyes travelling vertically up the face stared back at her, neither of the two moving. The rest of the beast still lay beneath the surface, but Robyn didn't need to see the rest of it to know this was a Grimm.

'Hannah!' Robyn called out, trying to emphasis the alarm in her voice, glancing over at her partner quickly to see where she was. The faunus turned on the spot quickly, eyes travelling to her partner. Robyn drew her bow, taking aim at the Grimm's face.

But it wasn't there.

Nothing sat in the position of the Grimm she had seen before, and not a ripple covered the surface. Her eyes danced across the water, trying to spot evidence of the creature she had spotted.

'What?' Hannah asked, scanning across the water as well. 'What is it?'

Had she imagined it? Surely not? But, then again, she had already had a pretty trying day, what with almost dying and everything…

'Nothing,' Robyn replied, lowering the bow and making her way towards her partner. 'Come on, let's get to that tree.

* * *

 **Oooo, is Robyn going insane?! Tune in next week to find out!**

 **In all honesty though, this one took a little longer to write. Doesn't help when I kept taking out parts that I didn't like, redoing other parts that needed to be better, then proceeded to do a group assignment meant for five people by myself because they haven't done anything since it started! Ah, university life...**

 **Well, happy reading (whether it be this or another fic) my fellow RWBY fans!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Monster of Lake Visra

\- Chapter Eight -

\- The Monster of Lake Visra -

Following the curvature of the water along the gravel was the easy part. Neither Robyn nor Hannah had any interest in stepping in the water just yet, and even if what she had seen earlier was just her imagination, Robyn didn't feel particularly safe around the Lake just yet. As vivid and real as the image she had seen looked, real creatures could just vanish from existence, and there was no way that if she had seen a Grimm that it could move from its position without disturbing the surface of the water.

The difficult part was traversing the gravelly ground. The stones were slick from the water, and crumbled underfoot if they applied to much pressure in their steps. Thick logs of driftwood littered their path, many of which being a bit too big to comfortable climb over, especially with the unsteady ground beneath them. If they had been given a straight path, they would have likely only taken little over half an hour to reach their objective. With all the obstacles in their way however, it ended up taking them just over a couple of hours to get to their allocated destination. And this was the closest of all the three locations.

Moving away from the shore and into the treeline, the partners claimed a pair of trees as their own, leaning against them patiently, sending a message to notify everyone that they had reached their location, before waiting for the call from the leading huntress. The bark was thick with moss, but it was better than sitting on the ground. Wet grass mixed with mud wasn't the best of combinations, Robyn's white boots already stained brown, barely even recognisable at this point.

Of course, it was most of her outfit that was caked in mud at this point, having slipped on a moss-covered tree root and falling onto her back in the mud. Hannah had laughed at Robyn's look of disgust before helping her up, but the damage had already been dealt. It was times like this that Robyn would think about changing to darker clothing, it was much easier to hide dirt and stains.

'Hey Robyn?' Hannah asked, breaking the silence between the two of them. 'The mission brief said this area was high Grimm activity in the area, right?'

Robyn nodded in response, already knowing the question her partner was alluding to. She herself had been thinking it ever since they left the underground river system beneath the village several hours ago. 'So where are they all?'

Hannah nodded. 'We haven't seen a single Grimm since we got out here. Don't you find that a little bit odd?'

'I find it worrying,' Robyn replied. 'What does it take for a large population of Grimm to disappear? Did someone come through and eliminate them all before we got here? Have they moved somewhere else? Did something scare them away?'

'I don't think that Grimm can get scared,' Hannah chuckled.

'You know what I mean though. It isn't every day that Grimm just up and vanish.'

The two of them stood in silence after that, consciously ensuring they continued to scan the environment around them, just in case karma decided to call around and drop a horde of Grimm on them. As the next few hours passed, the sun began to dip in the sky, getting close to the horizon already. Flicking her scroll open, Robyn took a glance at the time, groaning as she realised how late it was getting.

4:53pm

'How could we have made such little progress all day?' she asked her faunus partner.

'Not everything can happen immediately I guess. Look how long it took us to get here. Charlie and Misty have to travel around twice that distance, and Tina is heading to the other side of the lake. We could still be standing around for another four hours, depending on how much crap is in their way of course.'

Robyn was about to reply, when her scroll buzzed in her hand. The lifted it to her eye level, reading the message her brother had just sent.

 _Made it to our location. Tina on route to hers now. Rough estimate, 3 more hours?_

Robyn sighed, conveying the message to Hannah before tapping a quick text in response.

 _Understood, we'll keep our temp campsite up for now._

A few seconds passed.

 _Haha, very funny_

Robyn laughed at his reply, staring out across the lake in the general direction where her brother would be. She thought she could vaguely see him in the distance, but it could have just as easily been a shady section of the forest. 'Do you see them?'

Hannah looked up at Robyn's question, glancing to where the mud-covered girl was looking. 'Yeah. He's just standing watch next to a tree. Misty is skipping stones across the water.'

'Of course she is, sometimes I feel like she has the attention span of a –' Robyn trailed off, spotting the same glowing three eyes she had seen before, maybe a few hundred feet out into the water, glaring back at her.

'Of a what?'

'Hannah, please tell me you see that?' Robyn asked, not taking her eyes off of the creature. A few seconds passed, before she heard Hannah let out a silent curse, drawing her weapon from her back and spinning it in her hand, resulting in her holding her LMG tightly in her grasp, aiming down the sights at the monster.

The eyes flicked away from Robyn, glaring at the faunus girl, but other than that subtle movement, it didn't move a muscle. Robyn slowly drew her bow once more, flinching slightly as one of the three eyes glanced back at her, watching her every motion.

'What do we do?' Hannah hissed to Robyn. 'I don't really want to start a fight with something that lives in water without the rest of the team!'

'I don't know!' Robyn whispered back.

Hannah cursed again, raising her thumb and flicking off the safety, just in case. As she did, all three eyes whipped back to the faunus, a low growl emanating from beneath the water. Before either of them could react, the eyes vanished beneath the surface, leaving no trace of its presence. The partners eyed the water cautiously, watching for any hint at where it could be. But nothing moved. The surface of the water remained still, the only movements across it caused by the slight wind that blew across the lake, and the light waves which crested the shoreline.

'Keep an eye out,' Robyn whispered, lowering her bow and raising her scroll to her face as she called Tina. It rang for a few seconds before the huntress picked up, the sound of gravel crunching beneath her feet barely audible through the audio connection. 'What is it?'

'There's a Grimm in the water,' Robyn whispered, eyes still scanning the water as she spoke through her scroll.

'Alright, so kill it,' was the simple reply the huntress responded with.

'We can't. It disappeared.'

There was a slight pause, and the sound of the crunching gravel vanished. 'What do you mean it disappeared?'

'It was looking at us, just the top of its head was above the surface. When Hannah got ready to shoot it, it dived down, but the water didn't react to it, almost like it wasn't even there.'

There was more silence from the other end. 'I haven't heard of something like that before. Just, keep an eye out alright? One of you watch the water, the other watch for anything coming from the treeline. If you see it again, keep an eye on it, something feels weird about this.'

'Got it,' Robyn acknowledged.

'Send your brother a message,' Tina advised. 'If he and his partner don't already know about it, they need to. Until then, try to keep quiet. Negative emotions are what the Grimm normally are attracted to, but noise can bring them around too. I'll call you all when I get to my position.'

With that, the call ended, Robyn swiping through the menu on her scroll as she relayed the information to Hannah. She saw her partner nod in response, her focus shifting to the forest behind them whilst Robyn continued to scan the lake, waiting for her brother to pick up.

'What's wrong?' his voice came through, a hint of worry in his voice.

'There's a Grimm in the water that was watching me and Hannah,' Robyn relayed to her twin. 'I called Tina already and she isn't too sure what it is. Keep an eye out for something watching you in the water as well as in the forest around you.'

'Way ahead of you sis,' he replied casually. 'But we'll keep an eye out for your Grimm. What does it look like?'

'I don't know, we've just seen its face so far. It has three eyes running vertically, like a traffic light, if that helps.'

'To figure out what it is? No. To keep an eye out for it? Yes.'

'Good, be careful, alright?' Robyn asked.

'Aren't I always?' he replied cheekily, cutting off the call before she could make a snarky comment to him. She grumbled, putting her scroll away before raising her bow again, checking that the arrow was firmly nocked to the string before continuing her scan of the lake.

Hours passed as the two stood in silence, watching for any sign of Grimm, Robyn beginning to struggle as the sun got lower in the sky, now hiding behind the trees, barely any light peeking though as darkness began to fall over the lake.

'If she takes any longer, we won't be able to see the dust in the water,' Robyn hissed to nobody in particular.

'We can always just shine the lights on our scrolls onto the water,' Hannah said, readjusting her grip on the gun in her hand.

'I guess that's true,' Robyn responded, rolling her shoulder to keep the muscle needed for shooting warm, just in case she needed to use it.

A few minutes later and her scroll began to ring. She quickly slung her bow across her back, tapping accept to the video call, seeing Tina's face projected across the screen. A few seconds later and her brother appeared too.

'Alright, it's getting dark team, so let's get this underway,' Tina instructed. 'Head over to the water, and slowly pour the dust in. Don't do it in a huge clump, try to spread it out over an area, just a few square feet worth.'

Robyn nodded, drawing the vial Tina had supplied her and Charlie with before they all separated, heading over to the water's edge. She turned on the light on the back of her scroll and flipped the camera so that Tina had a view of the water before her. She saw Charlie do the same thing a second later, already pouring the dark liquid into the water. Robyn followed suit, unscrewing the lid with her teeth before upending the contents into a reasonable area of the water, making sure that she caught it on the camera.

She paused for a second, watching each of the screens as the dust began to swirl in the water, combining with the unnatural contents within it. Tina began whispering silently, evidently already doing math to try and figure out where the source must be. Robyn had no idea how she was working it out, but that was probably because she was only a student, whilst Tina was a professional huntress.

'Robyn, make sure we stay quiet, I think I see Grimm in the trees,' Hannah whispered softly, not checking to see if Robyn had heard her or not.

A few minutes passed before Tina spoke once more. 'Alright, I think I've got it. I'll go over my math again once I've picked you all up. It's getting dark, so I'm going to take one of the boats here, pick you up and bring you back here. There are a few buildings we can camp out in for the night.'

'Please hurry, I think we're about to start a fight over here,' Robyn whispered, glancing over her shoulder and seeing a horde of red eyes in the treeline, some of which were glaring in their direction.

'I'll be as fast as I can,' Tina promised, quickly ending the call. Robyn pocketed her scroll before raising her bow again. The Grimm were growling now, their red eyes getting closer, moving far enough into her sight that she could see their bodies now too.

It seemed to be a pack of Beowolves, and a large one at that. Towering behind the rest of them as a much larger form, more than likely to be the Alpha of the pack. Robyn selected an arrow from her quiver, nocking it on her bow and drawing the string, prepared to fire. A few moments passed between the two parties, before a loud howl rang out from the trees as the Alpha reared its head back into the sky. The other Grimm growled in unison, charging towards the two girls.

Robyn fired her bow immediately, the shaft splitting in two after being released, each half embedding itself into one of the many trees before her. To the untrained eye, it would appear that the arrow had been a dud, but to the eyes of a huntress, even one in training, you would see the thin wire that linked the two halves together.

The Beowolves definitely classed as being in the untrained eye group.

Charging forwards, the first Beowolf hit the wire, snapping it in half. Setting off the triggers in the arrow halves, the red dust embedded inside them exploded, fire spreading outwards from their position, travelling along the dust coated wire, letting off additional explosions.

Whilst it wasn't particularly subtle, it certainly cleared out the horde slightly.

Normal soldiers would hesitate at this point after watching several of their comrades be blow up by a trap, but the Grimm couldn't care less. They continued their charge, barrelling towards the two girls. Hannah opened fire at this point, the thunderous booms of her gun echoing across the lake as she tried to hold off the wave of Grimm. Each shot had enough force behind it to tear sections of the Grimm apart, blowing off limbs, or creating gaping holes in their bodies.

Robyn proceeded to fire her bow at the Grimm, using combinations of her incredible pinpoint accuracy, as well as her semblance to slow time for herself, each arrow finding it's mark in a Grimm's eye. But for all of their efforts, as soon as they had begun to open fire, it appeared that even more Grimm had suddenly come into existence around them. The trees were filled with glowing red eyes and black bodies covered in bone, each of the creatures rushing towards them.

Running out of space, the partners had no choice but to shift their weapons to be better suited for close quarters combat. Robyn managed to keep a few of them at bay with the reach of her spear, whilst Hannah sliced through any of those that got too close with her great sword. They worked effectively, dodging and weaving around each other's bodies and weapons to cover each other. They fought by instinct, almost knowing the motions the other would take instantly and how they needed to act to cover them.

A Grimm came too close for comfort and Robyn ducked low as Hannah's sword swung overhead, cleaving it in half. Twirling her spear in her hand, Robyn thrust it backwards, stabbing the tip into the throat of the Grimm which was attempting to sneak up on her partner. She rolled across the muddy ground, spinning the spear around her before slamming it into the leg of another Beowolf, causing it to topple to the ground. Using her weapon as leverage, Robyn bounced back to her feet and kicked out at another monster as she heard Hannah drive her sword into the prone Grimm.

Minutes passed as the two fought off the waves of Grimm, managing to keep them at bay for the time being. The sun set behind the horizon, and soon it became nearly impossible for Robyn to see anything around her. Deciding to take action, Robyn called out to her partner.

'Hannah, throw me!'

Hoping her partner had heard her, Robyn leapt forwards, planting a foot against a Beowolf's shoulder before kicking upwards, pushing herself into the air, praying Hannah was ready. She felt the blade of her partner's sword beneath her feet, then a sudden rush as she was thrust into the air with incredible speed. Drawing multiple arrows from her quiver, Robyn aimed them below her, igniting the red dust within the tips with her aura before firing them. The fiery projectiles struck into the ground, or Grimm flesh, their fires providing a small amount of light for her to see.

She spun her bow in the air, shifting it back into a spear as she fell, aiming her weapon before driving it through the torso of a Beowolf as she landed. Leaping off of its dissolving corpse, she began spinning and stabbing her spear at the monsters once again, now making much faster work of them with the aid of the lights around her. No matter how well they fought, the Grimm didn't stop coming. Each time Robyn thought that they were finally running out of enemies, another wave of Beowolves would appear from nowhere. This was likely what they meant by high Grimm activity.

Eventually, the two heard a low buzzing cutting through the air, barely audible above the roar of their battle. Then, a loud crack rang out, and a Beowolf next to Hannah lost its head in a puff of black smoke. Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Robyn saw the rest of their team on their way, Charlie steering the small boat whilst Tina and Misty were bracing as best as they could, weapons raised to fire at the horde surrounding them.

Misty let out a shot from her railgun, the energy blasting through several of the Grimm at once. Another shot rang out from Tina, another Grimm fell to the ground. Robyn spun her spear again, slicing the tip through another Beowolf before bringing the weapon back around to jam it through the beast's skull. A roar to the side caused her to swing the weapon in the direction of the threat, only for the shaft to meet the clawed fist of the Alpha.

Roaring in her face, it tore the spear from her hands, bringing its other fist into a vicious backhand, knocking her clean off her feet and into the air. Flailing wildly, Robyn was airborne for a short amount of time before she crashed into the waters of the lake. Scrambling under the water to find her feet, she managed to find purchase against the muddy ground beneath the water, kicking upwards to breach the surface again.

She gasped for air once she broke the water, pushing her arms to the side repeatedly as she kicked her legs back and forth to tread in the deep water. Spitting out water, Robyn blinked quickly to push the water from her eyes, freezing in fear as she caught a red glow to her left. She turned her head quickly, meeting the three-eyed gaze of the Grimm only a few feet from her. Now that she was up close with it, it looked even worse than what she had seen before. The skin was black like all Grimm, but slick as well as covered in a light amount of slime. The eyes focused on her with unnatural intelligence, giving her enough reason to be afraid of the monster.

Shouting loudly, she reached up into her quiver, grabbing a handful of arrows and thrusting her fist forwards, attempting to stab the Grimm in one of its eyes. However, as the points of the arrows neared its face, the Grimm ducked back under the water like before, and her arrows did little more than stab into the surface of the water. Panicking once more, Robyn began swimming away from the spot where she had seen the Grimm, praying that it wasn't going to grab her.

Whilst swimming backwards, something grabbed hold of the back of her jacket, pulling her out of the water quickly. Robyn screamed, twirling the arrows in her hand and stabbing at whatever had grabbed her.

'Ow!' shouted the voice of her brother, as she was unceremoniously dropped into the boat. She looked up, watching him rub his forearm, where she had just stuck her arrows.

'I'm sorry, I thought-'

'I know, I know!' he interrupted. 'Let's just get Hannah and get out of here!'

He moved back to the front of the boat, steering it closer to the shore, where Hannah had been backed up to in the attempts to stay away from the horde of Beowolves. The Alpha was up in her face, and she was attempting the stay its claws and teeth with her blade, but it was beginning to enter her guard with each step, the faunus only barely managing to fight it off.

Robyn noticed her spear slung across Hannah's back, shouting out to her partner. 'Hannah, throw me the spear!'

Hannah turned quickly, spotting Robyn in the boat before nodding. She unslung the spear with one hand, spinning on the spot and launching it in her direction, before continuing her motion and bringing up her sword to block another attack. Robyn caught the spear out of the air, spinning it quickly to shift it into its bow form, nocking an arrow on the string. The red crystal tip shone in the dim light that shone across the surface of the lake as she drew the bow back, aiming carefully. Once satisfied, she let it loose, the arrow passing over Hannah's head and impacting with the Alpha's snout.

A lout explosion boomed as the arrow exploded, sending the Alpha reeling. Hannah took the opportunity to turn tail and run, activating her semblance to push through the water faster than the Grimm could keep up. She clambered onto the boat, shifting her weapon back into a heavy gun.

'Go!' Tina yelled as the four girls opened fire on the shoreline, Charlie steering them away from the danger. After a few moments, the team was far enough away that the Grimm were unable to follow them. Robyn and Hannah collapsed against the side of the small boat, gasping for breath and chuckling slightly.

'Good job at holding them off,' Tina praised. 'Thankfully the boat is a lot faster than walking around the shoreline, so we managed to get to you much faster.'

Robyn and Hannah nodded in appreciation, wrapping each other in a one-armed hug, happy that they had made it out safely. Well, relatively safely.

'We'll head back to the docks on the other side of the lake,' Tina said. 'We'll need to set up a camp there, but it's a better idea than having us head out now that night has fallen. I'm already uneasy enough knowing that there's some strange Grimm in the water, I don't want to be out here when it gets even darker.'

Robyn nodded. 'I saw it again, when I was thrown into the water.'

'I saw it briefly, yes. We changed course when we saw you heading directly for it. Did it attack you?' Tina asked, eyebrows raising as Robyn shook her head.

'No, no it just looked at me. When I tried to stab it, it just withdrew into the water like it did the last time, and vanished.'

'That's most worrying,' Tina responded, rubbing her chin with one hand, deep in thought. 'I've seen a lot of things in my time as a huntress, but a Grimm that doesn't attack and disappears without a trace? I doubt even some of the best of us have seen something like that.'

'To be fair, you can't have seen all of the aquatic Grimm in the world,' Charlie reasoned. 'There have to be hundreds of them that live in various water bodies across the world, and you can't exactly check everywhere in those sorts of place.'

'That is true.'

The rest of their boat ride was silent, apart from the buzzing of the engine on the back. They reached the docks on the other side in just under half an hour, a massive improvement on the seven hours it took Tina to walk it. Charlie parked the boat against one of the wooden walkways, chucking the rope near the front across the nearby pole to keep it tied there, before helping the rest of the team jump up onto the pathway. Tina led them into the most stable looking building, tasking Charlie with grabbing some wood for a fire. Once inside, the four girls began rolling out their sleeping bags on the hard floor of the little shack on the edge of the shore. Charlie returned with a pile of wood, dropping it in the centre of the room before lighting them with a quick flourish of his dagger, igniting the blade and wood before sheathing the dagger once again in barely a second flat.

Hannah dragged Robyn closer to the fire, insisting that she needed to dry off, or at least stay warm. Robyn argued at first, but when the rest of the team, Tina included, insisted that she strip out of her clothes to let them dry, she had no choice but to oblige. Charlie graciously proffered to check outside, just in case any Grimm were sneaking up on them, leaving the room to give her a chance to get changed. Stripping out of her wet clothes and laying them on the floor near the fire, Robyn quickly jumped into her sleeping bag, wriggling closer to the flames to keep warm.

Tina drew a scrap of paper and a pen from her bag, tracing an outline of the lake and marking the point where they had used their dust vials, scribbling down numbers and equations across the paper, muttering to herself as she drew lines between the points, as well as other lines across the surface of the drawn lake. Misty drew forth the supplied rations from her pack, handing them out to the rest of the team, grimacing at the terrible taste. Charlie made his way back into the room a few minutes later, waving off the bad tasting rations just as Tina threw down her pen, smiling brightly.

'Alright, I've got it team!' she beamed, spinning the paper on the floor so that they could look at it to understand what she had drawn.

Well, understand was a bit of an understatement. Other than possibly her brother, Robyn was dead sure that none of them understood anything about the rough map and equations the huntress had drawn. Looking over at her brother, even he was looking at it in confusion, definitely unable to decipher what she had written.

'I went over my calculations again, and I believe that the source of the contamination, is coming from here,' Tina narrated, tapping her finger against the large circle she had drawn in the water of the map. 'Now, on our way over, I noticed that there was a rock formation in that general area, so if I were to gamble, I'd say that our best bet would be to look there.'

'But do you have any idea what could be causing the contamination yet?' Charlie asked, frowning as the huntress shook her head.

'No, but if it's this far away from the village, and is still enough to pollute their water supply, it's either something really potent, or really powerful.'

'What do you mean by, powerful?' Hannah asked, almost dreading the answer she would receive.

'As you know, Grimm can contaminate water, food, and other things, but only very locally. That's why I thought there might be a Grimm in the underground rivers, because it was locally down there, its presence was fouling the water. This could still be the case of course, but for how far away we are, for a Grimm to pollute the water this badly, it would have to be thousands of years old, not to mention more powerful than anything we've seen in our entire time on Remnant.'

'So that isn't too likely then?' Misty asked with hope.

'So, it isn't very likely, no,' Tina agreed. 'Which is why I'm hoping that it's just some accidental radiation spill from dust, or some sort of natural poison from a plant that has grown out there. Something to that effect.'

'How often is it that simple though?' Charlie asked.

'Never,' Tina sighed. 'Listen, we need to get moving early tomorrow, so all of you try to rest. Who wants first watch?'

'I'll do it,' Hannah immediately answered. 'I'm not tired yet, and I can see in the dark. The rest of you should grab some rest for now.'

'Come get me around midnight,' Tina requested. 'I'll take the second watch.'

Hannah nodded in response, leaning over and giving Robyn a quick peck on the cheek before getting to her feet, making her way outside, and from the sound of it, climbing up onto the roof the get a higher vantage point to keep an eye out.

The rest of the group began winding down for the evening, removing anything too uncomfortable to sleep in, such as their weapon and boots. Charlie even went as far to remove his coat, although he passed that along to Robyn quickly, which she was incredibly thankful for. Sleeping bags may have been warm, but it didn't cut out all of the cold. She murmured a quick thank you to her brother, pulling the coat into the sleeping bag with her and wrapping it tightly around her bare torso, smiling when she realised he'd left some red crystals in the pockets to help keep her warm.

Curling up in the sleeping bag, she shuffled closer to the fire, allowing the flames to keep her warm. She lay there for a while, watching the flames flicker across the wood pile, slowly burning through the fuel. She glanced around her, seeing that the other three people in the room had their eyes closed, but by the looks of it, only Charlie and Tina had actually fallen asleep. Misty wasn't breathing peacefully enough to be sleeping, and the way she constantly shifted on the floor suggested that she was extremely uncomfortable.

Robyn couldn't deny that the cold hard floor they were laying on wasn't very comfortable, and made sleeping very difficult to achieve. Regardless, she closed her eyes, praying for sleep to find her, god knows how important it would be for tomorrow. She lay there, listening to the crackling of the fire, gentle breathing of the people around her, and the occasional howl from a Beowolf in the distance. Eventually, she found her way into sleeps embrace.

* * *

Hannah shook Robyn awake the following morning. 'Come on, get up sleepyhead. Tina wants us heading out in the next half an hour.'

Robyn nodded groggily, sitting upwards, allowing the sleeping back to fall down around her. Luckily, her brother's coat had remained across her shoulders, succeeding in hiding her modesty from the rest of the team. She pulled the coat tighter around her nonetheless, glancing over at her clothes which appeared to have dried overnight. Hannah noticed her gaze, reaching over and passing the clothes her way.

'Thanks,' Robyn said, beginning to pull her clothes back onto her body, taking advantage of her brother not being in the room. In a few minutes, she was almost fully dressed again. She grabbed a few of the leftover rations that the team had been eating, before the three made their way outside.

Tina was still on the roof of the shack they had stayed in, keeping an eye out for any Grimm. Robyn noticed that the huntress's eyes always darted back to the lake, scanning it for anything every now and then. She glanced down as they walked into her field of vision, nodding in acknowledgement.

'Ready to head out?' she asked, rocking to her feet before leaping off of the roof.

'Yeah, let's get going,' Misty replied.

'Alright. Your leader is already in the boat,' Tina informed them, leading them back to the docks where they could just make out Charlie's red shirt behind the planks of wood that lined the docks. The four girls hopped into the boat one at a time, sitting down cautiously as the boat rocked each time one of them got on board. Robyn jumped down last, handing her brother his coat again.

'Thanks for lending me that last night by the way,' she thanked him as he slung it back on.

'No worries,' he smiled, clapping her on the shoulder before turning to the rope keeping them tied to the dock and untying it from the wooden post. He moved back to the engine, starting it up quickly and steering them in the direction of the rock formation in the direction Tina pointed to.

Each of them were keeping their eyes on the water around them as they made their way towards their destination. The water rippled around them as the boat cut through the surface, the wake they left behind them disturbing the surface even further. Perfect conditions for an aquatic Grimm to hide in.

 _No, don't think like that_ , Robyn growled internally. _This will be fine_.

Upon reaching the large cluster of rocks, they had to drive the boat around a few times to try and find a spot safe enough to leave it, seeing as most of the streams of water that led further into the formation were too small for the boat to traverse through. They couldn't leave it somewhere that would have the boat destroyed, but they also didn't want to park it where they had no access to the rest of the formation of rocks. Eventually they found a small cove between two spires of rock with a small path between them leading further into the formation.

Pulling the boat alongside the rocks, Charlie lashed the rope around a small spike, tying their trusty vehicle in place. Tina led the four of them through the small pass, the group squeezing through some sections when the rock walls got too close together. The path started curving upwards, and by the time they made their way out of the small pass, they were standing above most of the area, gazing down at the are they still had to search.

Rocks jutted out at every angle with small patches of empty space scattered about, some barren but covered in some strange moss, while the others were pools of water. The group slid down the side of the rock, beginning to work their way through the formation, leaping in between the various rocks to stay out of the water that rushed between them.

When Tina had said rock formation, Robyn hadn't thought that it would be this big. The formation was easily close to a thousand feet in any direction. Navigating the maze of stone was a difficult task, and at many points herself and Tina had required a hand climbing up some of the ledges they were using, the both of them being the shortest in the group. It had been amusing when Tina got confused as to why either Hannah or Misty always pulled the two of them up, and never Charlie.

'Normally the man would be the one to help pull up the rest of the team if they were too short to reach,' Tina snapped, causing all four of them to laugh at once. 'What?! What did I say?'

'Nothing, nothing,' Misty chuckled, pretending to wipe away tears from her eyes. 'See, it turns out that Charlie here, bless him, is a super weak little baby girl.'

'I'm not that bad!' Charlie huffed, folding his arms at her teasing.

'You lost an arm wrestle to Ruby for god's sake!' Robyn laughed, smile growing wider as her brother's pout grew as well.

'She cheated,' he mumbled.

'Sure thing Mr Pot,' Hannah clapped him on the shoulder as they continued to move. 'I'll be sure to tell Mr Kettle you said that.'

'Is this some sort of joke, or are you actually serious?' Tina interrupted.

'No, we're serious,' Robyn answered. 'He makes up for his lack of strength though, so we tolerate him.'

Her brother didn't grace her with an answer, proceeding to lead the party further into the rocks. They easily spent the next hour climbing around, darting through small passages, and then turning back when they realised that they had hit a dead end. Robyn was about to reach for the small bottle of water in her bag when Hannah called out to them from her vantage point a top a tall stone spire.

'Hey, guys! There's a cave of sorts down there!' the fox faunus informed them, pointing over the edge of the small "cliff" that they were on. The others quickly gathered around, following her finger to the small hole at the base of another large rock a few jumps away. Water flowed freely into the cave, leading back out to the lake through the various small streams. Anything past the small glance they could get from here however, they couldn't see much else, as the interior was encased in shadows.

'Can you see inside?' Tina asked Hannah.

'No, we're too high up for me to see all the way inside,' she replied. 'For all we know it could be huge, or just a small section where the rock was carved away.'

'It's a better lead than anything we've had so far,' the leading huntress answered. 'Let's get down there.'

A few hops across the various rocks, and a long slide down the side of the last had the group at the same level as the cave. They slowly made their way over to the opening in the stone, Hannah leading the group to try and see what was inside. They made it a few feet from the cave entrance before Hannah hissed, holding her arm in front of them all and moving to the side to get out of the way. The rest of the group followed her lead, moving to the side and hugging the rock wall.

'What is it?' Tina asked, her hand clasped around the sniper strapped to her back.

'It's that Grimm that's been watching us since we got to the lake!' she whispered back.

'What? How did it even get here?!' Robyn questioned. 'It looked like it was too big to be able to fit in here!'

'There's a huge pool of water in there as well. It could lead back out into the lake.'

'That would make sense,' Tina replied. 'Did it see you?'

'No, it looks like it's sleeping,' the faunus replied.

'Wait, Grimm sleep?' Misty asked.

'Sometimes, it depends on where they are, if there are other Grimm around them, lots of different variables,' Tina answered. 'It isn't common though.'

'Just like how it isn't common for a Grimm to not attack a person when they land directly in front of it?' Charlie said, receiving a nod from the silver haired huntress.

'It can't be a coincidence that this thing is right where you thought we needed to look,' Hannah whispered to the huntress. 'This has to be causing the pollution to the water, right?'

'It's possible,' Tina replied. 'But if it is, then it is likely very powerful.'

'Well, it's a very powerful, sleeping Grimm right now,' Misty hissed. 'If we attack now, surely we can do some serious damage before it even wakes up!'

Tina nodded. 'Fine. But, I lead this fight. You do everything I tell you to! I know you are used to listening to Charlie, but you need to listen to me too now. He can still give combat instructions, simply because the four of you know each other better than I do. However, if I think it isn't going well, you will pull back. Is that understood?'

'Crystal,' Charlie replied. 'Just tell us what to do.'

'Try to do as much damage while it's asleep,' Tina whispered to the girls, drawing her sniper from her back. 'Charlie, I don't want you getting too close to it. If you can do anything from a distance, do that.'

The four members of Team CHRM nodded in response, drawing their own respective weapons. Charlie kept his blades as daggers, whilst the rest of his team shifted their weapons into their long-distance combat forms. They silently stepped around the corner, entering the mouth of the cave. As they stepped inside and let their eyes adjust to the low light, they finally saw the beast that had been stalking them.

Easily sitting as tall as an Ursa, and roughly thirty feet in length, the strange, slimy black mass that was the Grimm lay there in silence. A thick long tail trailed behind the serpentine body, entwined with three equally long tendrils. Unlike most Grimm, very little bone armour covered its body, from what they could see only the face of the monster was actually covered. That aside though, it literally looked like something straight out of somebody's nightmares.

As the five of them crept into position, trying to stay as close to the mouth of the cave as possible, they raised their respective weapons, lining up their shots. Robyn drew a handful of arrows, her brother raising his two daggers, prepared to throw them, whilst the others raised their guns, aiming down their sights at the beast.

'Now,' Tina ordered, the party opening fire on the Grimm. Bullets roared out of the guns, arrows whistled through the air and a pair of flaming daggers spun end over end towards the creature's hide. A loud cracking sound rang through the cave, and after a moment, the Grimm flickered and vanished. Behind it were the impact marks from their ammunition, which had hit the back wall behind the Grimm.

'What?' Tina questioned, confusion written all over her face. Robyn scrunched her eyebrows, the entire team keeping their guard up, prepared for a counter-attack. It took a second before it came, and when it did, it wasn't in the way any of them were expecting it.

Robyn could see her brother to her side, slowly turning his head to look around the cave, when his face scrunched up in pain, and he started screaming loudly, clasping his hands to the sides of his head. The rest of the group glanced over as he dropped to one knee, holding his head in his hands as he continued screaming. Tina rushed to his side as a low growl filled the air.

Misty and Hannah let out low grunts as Robyn heard something crash into the pair. Spinning around, she saw one of the long black tendrils reaching out of the pool of water in the cave, pinning the two girls to the wall. Faster than she could react, it whipped back towards her, clipping her temple and throwing her into the ceiling. Tina spun her weapon, blocking the strike against her with her halberd, but the strength still pushing her back a few feet. She tried to swing her weapon vertically to cut the tendril in half, but it darted backwards, then forwards once again now that her weapon was out of the way. It slammed into her chest, thrusting her out of the mouth to the cave. Robyn dropped back to the floor, drawing an arrow and firing it at the water, the lightning dust in the tip crackling as it flew through the air.

As she loosed it however, the tendril retreated to the pool, another two joining it and planting themselves against the edge of the water. They stiffened against the stone, pushing downwards, and the body of the beast leapt out of the pool, Robyn's arrow passing beneath it before electrocuting the water. The slimy Grimm growled at them once again, a leech-like mouth with rows of sharp pointed teeth opened wide as it faced them.

Misty charged forwards, swinging her axe into the Grimm's side, digging the blade into the black flesh. Another low growl filled the air as it turned to face her. She reached up and clutched the side of her head with one hand, before the Grimm recoiled its head, then spat a glob of thick grey slime over the girl, encasing her completely.

Robyn dashed forwards, stabbing her spear at its face. A tendril reached up and grabbed hold of her spear, stopping her in her tracks, before jerking to the side, slamming her into the cave wall. It pulled her back again, sending her crashing into the floor. Hannah raced to her side, slicing her blade at the tendril, severing the portion wrapped around her spear. The Grimm roared at her, spinning slightly as its tail swiped into the faunus' side, knocking her away from Robyn.

The blue-haired girl gripped her spear again, thrusting it towards the Grimm's mouth in the attempts to stab into its throat. Unfortunately, the mouth snapped shut as she did so, trapping her weapon. She looked up, blue eyes meeting the three red ones. Suddenly, a blinding pain filled her head, causing her to scream out in pain. She released her spear, clutching at her skull as a horrible shrieking noise started to fill her mind. Her ears began to ring, until the only sound she could hear was the shrieking sound in her head.

She glanced to her side, looking for help, instead only finding her brother and Hannah just getting to their feet, Tina rushing back into the room, and Misty gasping for breath on the floor. Something splattered against Robyn, knocking her onto her back. She spluttered, spitting some of the strange grey slime that she was now covered in from her mouth. She took a deep breath to fill her lungs, but nothing came in.

Robyn choked, taking another breath but receiving no oxygen. As she started gasping in panic, the ringing in her head continued, Tina charged into combat, slashing her halberd towards the Grimm. It dodged to the side before ensnaring her in all three of its tendrils. Sweeping its tail towards Charlie and Hannah, who both managed to jump backwards to avoid the attack, it began retreating, before spinning and diving into the water, dragging the huntress with it. Robyn rolled to her side, watching as Hannah and Charlie began rushing towards her and Misty. Her vision began to darken, fading completely to black just before they reached her.

* * *

 **:O**

 **Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I didn't want to continue it on from here, seeing as what I'm planning next would probably more than double the length of this chapter already. So, I decided that a cliffhanger was a better choice... for some reason.**

 **Hope you've had a great week, and I'll see you next Sunday! (Or Saturday, depending on where you live)**


	9. Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

\- Chapter Nine -

\- When Things Go Wrong -

When he had gotten up that morning, Jaune had tried to call Ruby back, but got nothing but static. He knew that she was out of the kingdom, but a few minutes later, Jaune had the worst feeling in his gut. It wasn't the same kind of feeling as when he got air sickness, or the same feeling as when Cardin often kneed him in the stomach, or other more painful places, during combat class. He was pretty sure that it wasn't nerves either, even though they were about to go on their first mission as a team. Team JNPR was one of the strongest teams in the school! What could possibly go wrong?

And yet, here he was, an hour and a half later, making his way towards the bullhead awaiting him and his team, still plagued by the same feeling. He hadn't brought it up with the rest of his team of course, he didn't need to give them another reason to believe that he wasn't capable of doing what they could. Just because it was true, it didn't mean that he had to point out things that would remind them of it. Regardless whether he told them or not, this feeling was bugging him. It was almost an instinctual feeling, as if something were about to go wrong any minute now.

He had enough time to finish his thought when it happened, sirens filling the air from both the city of Vale, and back inside the academy they had just come from. Glancing up at the city, he could easily pick out the black column of smoke that was rising from its center. That, mixed with the alarms all the way up here, where all of the hunters were trained as well as most professionals stayed if they didn't want to pay for accommodation, meant only one thing.

Grimm were in the city.

The rest of his team turned to him, waiting for his instructions.

'We're changing our mission!' he ordered. 'Everyone get on board!'

The four rushed towards their bullhead, Jaune shouting through the doorway to the cockpit for the pilot to take them into the city. He didn't get a response, but they started flying towards Vale and not away from it, so he was confident that the pilot had heard him. As they took off, Jaune started focusing extremely hard on not throwing up out the open door of the bullhead. As they flew over the walls into the city, it didn't take long for them to spot the carnage below.

Grimm flooded the streets from one of the various park squares, hordes of the beasts milling around. From their position in the sky, Jaune could barely make out the forms of Team RWBY, each of their coloured outfits standing out like a beacon in the midst of the sea of Grimm.

'We need to get down there!' Jaune shouted, eyes scanning across his team before coming up with a plan. 'Nora, Pyrrha! Electromagnetism!'

'We really need a better name for that,' Nora replied, whilst Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

'We'll do that later, just go!' Jaune yelled back, receiving a quick salute from the short girl. Pyrrha took a step back, bracing herself behind her shield as Nora made a short run towards the warrior, leaping up at the last second and planting her feet against the shield, grenade launcher pressed against the metal too. With an explosive bang, Pyrrha thrusted her shield forwards, combining her strength with the explosive force from Nora's grenade. The girl shot out of the side of the bullhead like a bullet, streaking through the sky. They watched as the girl shifted the weapon to its iconic hammer form, slamming it into the ground amid a wave of Grimm, sending the beasts and debris everywhere.

It took the airship a few seconds longer before they were close enough to jump, hovering over a nearby rooftop for them. The three students jumped out the door, landing atop the building before leaping over the edge to the street below.

'Let's move!' Pyrrha exclaimed, her and Ren taking off into the battle. Jaune sighed in irritation, but followed them regardless.

'Alright, who's first?' he asked, receiving a response almost instantly as an Ursa leapt towards him, slamming it's claws into the ground as he jumped backwards. 'Of course, you would be first.'

The Ursa got back to its feet, roaring at the blond knight before swinging its paw at him again. Jaune caught the blow on his shield, straining for a moment before pushing it back. He followed the motion with a quick slice across the Grimm's chest, then adding a backhanded cut to keep it at bay.

The Grimm took a step back to get away from the pain, but gave Jaune the edge to keep pushing forwards. He began hacking and slicing away, slowly advancing on the creature as it continued trying to escape his wrath. Slashing across it's legs, the Grimm fell to its knees, at which point Jaune slammed the flat of his shield into its face, sending it reeling backwards, exposing its throat for him to stab Crocea Mors through its jugular.

Jaune smiled in success, turning towards the rest of the battle. He raced towards Ren, decapitating a Creep with a single swing of his sword, then blocking a strike from a Beowolf that would have hit his teammate. He stabbed his blade around the edge of his shield, driving it deep into the Grimm's chest.

He and Ren kept their enemies at bay for a while, until a Boarbatusk came rolling towards them, crashing into Jaune's shield, scattering the two from each other. The Boarbatusk growled at Jaune, moving to impale him with his tusks before being blown away with a beam of blue energy. A hand entered his field of vision, and Jaune took it graciously. He looked up at his saviour, spotting the yellow goggles and blue hair of Neptune.

'Thanks!' he gasped out.

'No sweat,' Neptune replied, waving a hand before raising his weapon as a trident, chasing after the rest of Team SSSN to take out some more Grimm as Jaune went his own way, cutting into more Grimm.

The battle only lasted for a few more minutes, as eventually the robotic soldiers from Atlas dropped from the sky to assist in eliminating the Grimm. Before they dropped, Jaune managed to find Pyrrha, the two of them working together to advance through the Grimm, guarding each other with their shields, and attacking anything that got too close for comfort. Blake had joined the pair at one point, using the two as cover before she would leap over their shoulders, take a few slashes at the Grimm before darting back behind the pair for safety.

Most of the students who were still in Vale had made their way into the city, even those from other academies. He saw Mercury alongside Yang, the two of them displaying incredible skill, the two working in tandem with one another, almost as if they were actual teammates. A sniper in a beanie had found herself a perch in a nearby tree and was picking off Grimm with a passion, her weapon punching holes in them that made Crescent Rose look like a BB gun. He even swore he saw a rainbow dashing around the battle, leaving the Grimm in its wake in various states of distress, some frozen solid, others set alight, and others sprawled across the ground.

Regardless, as soon as the Atlas military stepped in, the ordeal was over quickly. Jaune saw Emerald and Mercury assisting the military in escorting Roman Torchwick of all people into one of their nearby ships. Team SSSN were performing an odd victory dance in one corner of the square, whilst other teams all performed their own ways of celebrating a win.

Jaune made his way to his teammates, spotting another student off by herself. He recognised her as Cinder, Mercury and Emerald's leader. He didn't know much about her, as she had always been incredibly withdrawn from the rest of the student population. It could be due to the fact that her own teammate's arrival had been delayed from Haven, and she didn't really have any familiar faces that she trusted nearby.

But as he caught her eye, what he saw made the hairs on his neck stand on end. Whilst her face was blank, devoid of emotion, her fiery orange eyes burned with anger. No, more than that. They were filled with fury, rage. Her eyes met his, and with a blink, the look vanished, and her eyes lost the horrific look that they were holding. She let out a small smile, giving him a small wave, which he politely returned.

He stood alongside his team, and Team RWBY shortly met up with them as well. They talked happily together after the long battle, trying to figure out how the four girls caused so much chaos after only one day. But as they talked, Jaune's mind kept going back to Cinder, and that look that her eyes had shown, trying to understand why it had been there in the first place.

* * *

'Robyn!' Hannah shouted, sliding to a stop next to her partner, rolling her onto her back before checking her vitals. Her heart was still beating, barely, but she wasn't breathing. She pinched her partners nose shut, moving to blow into her mouth to try and jump start the breathing process, when Charlie roughly grabbed her arm, pulling her away.

'What are you doing!?' she shouted at him, wrenching her arm away to move back to her partner. 'She isn't breathing!'

Charlie pulled her away again as she tried to give Robyn mouth to mouth once again. 'I know that! You tried this already and ended up just like her!'

Hannah paused in her motion, recoiling her head slightly. 'What do you mean?'

'Almost immediately after you started doing that, you started choking as well!' Charlie answered, moving and kneeling by Misty's side. 'I think that whatever that stuff the Grimm spat on them stops them from breathing, and if you ingest any of it at all from them, it'll start to affect you too.'

'What do we do then?!' Hannah panicked. 'If we can't help them in the conventional way, what do we do?'

'I don't know. Which is why I need you to calm down and help me come up with a solution,' Charlie answered, opening Misty's mouth and starting compressions on her chest, just in case it worked. 'If you ingest something that prevents breathing, how do you counter it?'

Hannah stuttered. 'I don't know. What about ice dust? Pour some down their throats, maybe it freezes the slime?'

'Already tried it, didn't work,' Charlie replied, moving away from his teammate and pacing with his hands over his head.

'We can't just push it out I assume?' Hannah asked.

'We couldn't apply enough pressure to do it,' Charlie recounted, remembering their previous attempt to resuscitate their teammates.

'What if we dilute it?' Hannah asked. 'Get them to inhale water, get it to mix with the slime that they ingest. Maybe it could dilute it enough to stop it from working?'

'It's worth a shot,' Charlie replied, activating his semblance. Everything around him began moving backwards. He watched as he undid the motions of attempting compressions with Misty, then his short battle with Hannah to prevent her from accidentally causing herself to become like his sister and Misty. He released the flow of aura he was putting into his semblance, completing his journey back through time. He reached out, grabbing Hannah's arm, pulling her away before she could attempt mouth to mouth once again.

'What are you doing?!' she shouted at him, wrenching her arm away to move back to her partner. 'She isn't breathing!'

'I know, listen no time to explain!' he shouted, grabbing her arm again. 'If you do that, you end up like them. Help me get them into the water!'

Hannah looked at him in confusion as he scooped up his sister in his arms, carrying her to the pool of water. 'Do it!'

She nodded, rushing to Misty's side and picking her up as Charlie dumped his sister into the water, holding onto her collar to prevent her from sinking. Hannah dragged Misty over, throwing her into the water as well. The two sat there for a few moments, before Robyn started moving in the water. Her eyes opened, and she attempted to breathe in, drawing in nothing but water. The blue haired girl struggled in his grip, panicking as she couldn't breathe.

Charlie lifted her up, throwing her onto the rock beside him. Robyn spluttered, vomiting a mixture of water combined with chunks of the grey slime, as well as her rations from that morning. A few seconds later, Hannah lifted Misty from the water, who added her own vomit to the floor. The pair gasped heavily, drawing in as much air as possible.

'Thank god!' Charlie exclaimed, drawing his sister into a tight hug. She gasped into his ear, patting him clumsily on his shoulder. He let her go, rushing over to Misty and treating her to the same experience.

'What happened?' the blond asked, gazing around in confusion.

'That slime stopped the two of you from breathing,' Hannah answered, breaking away from her own embrace with Robyn. 'The Grimm took Tina before we could do anything.'

'What?!' Robyn exclaimed, struggling to get to her feet. 'We need to go after her!'

'We, can't do anything right now!' Charlie responded. 'You two aren't fit for trying to swim after that thing, and there's no way that we can fight it without Tina.'

'What are we going to do then?' Misty growled at him. 'We can't just leave her down there!'

Charlie turned back towards the pool of water, a terrible plan forming in his mind. It probably wouldn't work, and if he got too far when it went wrong, it wouldn't end very well for him. But if it succeeded… and that was a big if… maybe they could all get out of this.

'Hannah, take the two of them to somewhere safe,' Charlie ordered, stripping off his heavy coat and throwing it towards the faunus, before leaning down and taking off his boots. 'Try to get them somewhere out of the way, so that if it comes back, it won't find you.'

'What are you doing?' she asked him, fumbling to catch his boots as he kicked them behind him.

'Going after Tina,' he replied, diving into the pool after the Grimm before she could get another word in.

 _Please just listen to me_ , he begged, before beginning to count upwards from 0 in his mind. He swam through the water, drawing a dagger and using the faint glow emanating from it to see ahead of himself. It wasn't the best light source, without the flames it only revealed maybe a dozen feet ahead of him. It was enough to see the edges of the tunnel, so it wasn't as if he could miss something by having it pass by him. But anything further than where that light source illuminated?

Well, he was completely blind to any of that.

It was around the point when Charlie reached the forty second mark in his head that he started to think that this might have been a bad idea. He had no idea how deep this cave went, and he had gone into it assuming that there was an exit on the other side. If he used his semblance to cut out the last forty seconds of travel, he'd lose his ability to jump back out of the water instantly. But he couldn't use it until he really needed to.

When he began to see three glowing red lights in the distance heading his way, he realised that he didn't have much of a choice now. If Tina was still in the Grimm's clutches, then everything would be fine. If not, things were going to get even more difficult.

Swimming to the side of the cave, Charlie drew his other blade for additional lighting. It didn't do much to increase the radius of light around him, but what he could see appeared to be slightly brighter. He waited patiently as the Grimm approached, preparing to use his semblance at the last possible moment. The eyes grew larger as it grew closer, until it was close enough to have its face illuminated by the glow of his daggers.

Praying that his guess was right, Charlie focused on anything except for the massive beasts' eyes, searching for Tina anywhere on its body. The sound he had heard earlier still rang through his head, but nowhere near as badly as before. It was still irritating, but not to the degree that he was unable to move. Eyes darting back and forth, he failed to find Tina anywhere on its body. The Grimm opened its leech-like mouth to take a bite out of him, and he began the flow of his aura once again, using it in a different way than he had earlier.

Charlie watched as the Grimm began moving backwards through time, retreating into the dark where it had come from. As it did, Charlie counted down from fifty-three. As soon as he hit zero, he stopped the flow of his aura, time starting for him once again. Immediately, he began swimming forwards again. He had to find Tina before it was too late. He had already been holding his breath for a minute, and if he failed to find her quickly, he might have an issue getting out of here.

Of course, if there was no way out it wouldn't matter either.

As he traversed further into the underwater cave, small pockets and side passages began to appear in the stone. Some of them were small, while others were easily large enough to allow the Grimm that was down here with him to pass through. Speaking of, the telltale shine of its eyes had appeared in the distance once again. Charlie glanced around him, picking one of the thinner passages. He sheathed his daggers behind his back, their red glow muffled by the leather sheaths strapped to his belt. Swimming into the passage, Charlie tried to make himself as small as possible in the hopes that it wouldn't spot him. Nearly twenty seconds passed before he heard the rush of water pass overhead, and the brief sight of the Grimm darting past him. He gave it another fifteen seconds before kicking out of the passage.

Drawing his dagger once again, Charlie pushed on. All he had to pray for now was that the Grimm didn't double back on itself and come at him from behind. Thirty more seconds passed before Charlie saw something reflecting the light from his daggers up ahead. Getting closer, he saw that it was the halberd that Tina had been using. Grabbing it from the water, he turned his head frantically to try and find the huntress.

He found her a few dozen feet further, floating unconscious in the water. Slotting the handle of his dagger between his teeth, then compacting her halberd into a more manageable form and slinging it across his back, Charlie took hold of the huntress, her silver hair billowing outwards in the water.

Glancing around, he saw a bluish light peeking out through one of the nearby tunnels. He had already been underwater for nearly three minutes now. His aura was helping him out, which was how he was still conscious, but it was likely that he wouldn't have the time to make his way back the way he came, not if he had to drag Tina along behind him as well. His only chance now was to follow that light, and hope that it led out into the lake.

Pulling the unconscious Tina behind him, Charlie tugged her along slowly, inching after the light that he could see. The new tunnel led him even deeper, and he began to feel his ears popping as the pressure began to build. Just as he began to think he couldn't make it any further, he rounded one of the corners in the tunnel, and was greeted with the side of an open expanse of water. Kicking frantically, Charlie swam out of the tunnel, finding himself out of the caves and back into the lake.

Probably somewhere between one and two hundred feet below the surface of the water of course. And he was beginning to struggle with holding his breath.

Wasting no time, Charlie pulled the two of them upwards, forcing aura into his limbs to quicken their ascent. Twenty seconds passed, and the edges of his vision began to darken. His lungs felt as if they were on fire, his head pounding from the lack of oxygen. He clawed through the water with his one free hand, kicking his legs behind him as fast as he could.

Another ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Twenty-five.

Just as his vision was about to fade, his hand broke the surface. The cool feeling of air against his skin giving him the extra adrenaline he needed to make one final push, breaking the surface of the lake as he gasped for air. Opening his mouth, allowing his dagger to drop into his free hand, his first breath was rushed and laced with water. The second was less wet, his head now above the water. Taking in his third, he heaved on the unconscious huntress at his side, bringing her head above the water too.

Holding her across his shoulder, he swam towards the rocks, slowly clambering onto the nearest ledge and dragging her behind him. As soon as she had her back on the solid stone, he checked her pulse. He could feel it, but it was incredible slow. He opened her mouth, pinching her nose before blowing hard to try and kick start her breathing. After two blows, he came back up spluttering out more of the grey slime that had affected his teammates. Spitting it out, he darted to the water and took a quick swig. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he passed out due to a lack of oxygen, whilst above water.

Moving back to the huntress, he gave her mouth to mouth once again. It took nearly half a minute before she reacted, coughing violently as water spewed from her mouth, mixed with the same slime as well as a good-sized portion of their breakfast. Rolling her onto her side, Charlie sat by awkwardly as the huntress emptied her stomach onto the rock face.

After a few minutes of vomiting, the huntress managed to spit at the ground, rolling to stare at him, blue eyes half hidden by her wet hair, plastered across her face, gazing up into his red pair. She opened her mouth to speak, coughing softly as she did. 'What, *cough*, what happened?'

'You got abducted by a huge Grimm and I had to take the time to save you,' Charlie recounted cheekily, receiving a half-hearted eye roll from the woman.

'My hero,' she replied with sarcasm, but giving a thankful smile at the same time.

'I wouldn't say that just yet. We're stuck on the side of the rock formation, separated from the rest of the team, and from our last encounter, I don't think we have much of a chance of killing that Grimm,' Charlie said, immediately souring both their moods.

'I agree,' Tina replied, slowly lifting herself into a sitting position. 'We need to meet up with the rest of your team, and get out of here. Technically, we completed the mission. We were only supposed to find the cause of the issue, not deal with it and the contamination must be coming from that Grimm. I've never seen anything so powerful before.'

'I have a problem with that,' Charlie spoke up, standing to his feet and gazing around them, trying to find a path for them to get back to the rest of their group. 'Generally, more powerful Grimm have been around for longer, right?'

Tina nodded. 'As well as becoming more intelligent, adapting to the world that they have lived in yes. Why?'

'Well, if this thing is half as intelligent as I think it is, will it really let us leave? Think about it. Surely it knows that if it allows us to leave, more powerful hunters are going to come and take it out. So, why would it allow us to get out of here?'

'It wouldn't,' Tina sighed, the truth dawning on her. 'And with nothing but it's natural habitat surrounding us, we don't have the best chances if we want to run either. Our only chances would be to call for help then.'

Tina reached into her pocket, taking out her scroll, which was soaked to the core, the circuits within it utterly fried. She turned her head to Charlie, who had drawn out his own scroll, shaking his head in return as his was in the same state as hers.

'Well, we still have your partners, right?' she asked, frowning as he assumed an awkward look on his face.

'I had to dunk two of them underwater to keep them alive,' he replied slowly, wincing as she took on a look of frustration. 'I didn't check, but I highly doubt that their scrolls are working either.'

'That leaves us with one scroll left,' she summarised, slowly getting to her feet. 'We need to get back to them, and fast.'

Charlie nodded, taking off her weapon from his shoulder and handing it back to her.

* * *

Hannah urged her teammates forwards, bringing up the rear of their party of three. They tried to take the most direct path away from the save, but also the one the was least likely to have the Grimm follow them. Robyn and Misty slipped a few times due to their wet clothing, but Hannah was always directly behind them to pick them up again.

'Where are we going?' Misty asked, pulling herself up a ledge before holding out a hand to help Robyn climb up.

'We can't go to the boat,' Hannah replied. 'It's too easy a target, and if that thing takes it out before we're free to go, we're going to be stuck here.'

'We need to get to high ground then,' Robyn stated, taking Misty's assistance to climb up the ledge. 'That way we can see everything around us. We'll be able to see the Grimm, as well as Charlie.'

 _If he made it out_ , she thought, immediately berating herself for even thinking like that. He would be fine, she could feel it.

'I hope he managed to find Tina,' Misty said, pulling Hannah up onto the ledge as well. 'And if he did, hopefully she was still in one piece.

Robyn imagined the sight of the silver haired huntress floating in the water, torn to shreds by the horrifying mouth of that Grimm, eyes empty and soulless as her blood filled the water. She shook her head to rid herself of the image, hardening her eyes to look for the next path they should take to get to higher ground.

A roar coming from somewhere behind them interrupted her thoughts, and the three of them scattered, pressing their backs against the rocks, drawing their weapons swiftly as they scanned for the source of the noise. Their elevated position granted them enough of a view of the most local area, but much of the formation they were atop was still hidden behind taller spires of stone. The one thing that they could still see however was the cave where they had encountered the Grimm.

Glowing red eyes peered out of the cave before the beast crawled into the sunlight, holding itself aloft with its three tendrils like a spider, its tail dragging across the floor. Water still ran off of the side of the creature, leaving a trail behind it against the stone, turning it darker in colour. It had come out too quickly, the three of them weren't far enough to escape its sight. The Grimm turned to face them, spotting them easily, letting out another shriek. Misty bent over in pain, gasping as she clutched at her head.

'We need to move!' Hannah shouted, slinging her sword across her back before picking up Misty in her arms. 'Cover us!'

Robyn obliged, firing off arrow after arrow towards the creature as they retreated further into the rocks. Hannah didn't dare turn to watch the Grimm, but from the sounds of its low growling and the loud thumping that slowly increased in intensity, it was definitely catching up to them quickly. A loud explosion sounded behind her, followed by a rush of heat and the pitch of the Grimm's growls increased slightly.

Misty shook her head in Hannah's arms, breaking out of her stupor. She patted Hannah's arm, motioning for the faunus to let her go. Hannah obliged, rotating her arms to allow Misty's feet to touch the floor.

'Don't look into its eyes,' Misty warned. 'I think that's how it screws with our heads. If you do, it fills your head with this horrible noise.'

Hannah nodded at the warning, drawing her weapon and mecha-shifting it into its LMG form. 'Robyn, keep going. Me and Misty can try hold it off for a second.'

Robyn gave her a quick nod before taking off once again, firing a few arrows behind her every few seconds. A pair of tendrils crept over a spire of stone to their right, and the pair turned their guns to the beast as it began climbing over the rock, growling at them lightly. The duo opened fire on the beast, freezing as their rounds had no impact on the monster, instead passing through its body. A second roar sounded to their other side, and they turned to late as a pair of the tendrils shot towards them, crashing into their chests and sending them sprawling across the rock face.

The false image of the Grimm vanished above them, the real monster crawling into view a few rocks over. The two girls averted their gazes from its eyes as it crawled towards them. Scrambling backwards, the Grimm snarled, recoiling its head slightly. Knowing what was coming next, Hannah grabbed hold of Misty's arm, rolling to the side and off of the ledge they were on out of sight before activating her semblance. The grey slime shot towards them from its mouth, but splattered harmlessly across the stone as it passed through their forms.

Another blast rocked across its side as Robyn tried to cover them. The Grimm growled in pain, whipping its head around to face her, drawing back its tendrils and using them to propel itself towards the archer. Hannah barely caught the sight of Robyn sliding down the side of the rock before the Grimm could reach her, managing to get out of its reach before it could attack her.

The faunus released her teammates arm, the both of them raising their weapons once again and firing at the Grimm's body. This time their rounds impacted with its slimy hide, causing it to growl angrily before spinning on the spire to turn back to them. It crouched against the rock with its tendrils, prepared to leap towards them when a loud crack rang across the rocks and the Grimm's head whipped to the side, shrieking in pain.

Hannah glanced around them, looking for the source of the shot, but couldn't find anything. The Grimm seemed to do the same thing, glancing for its foe before darting into cover beneath the spires of stone.

'We need to split up,' Misty whispered. 'If it finds the two of us next to each other it'll just have an easier time taking out the two of us at once.'

Hannah nodded. 'I'll take the high ground, you stay out of sight for now but take shots whenever you can.'

The pair gave each other a quick fist bump before separating, Hannah scaling up the rock face and firing her weapon at the beast whilst Misty kept low, darting around the cramped battlefield to find a better position to fight. The beast whipped around to face her, whipping its tendrils towards her. Hannah slid to the ground, passing beneath them. Tilting her legs, her heel caught the rock face, her momentum helping to pull her upwards, spinning her weapon once, shifting it into her greatsword and swinging it upwards from beneath one of the tendrils.

The beast let out a loud scream, withdrawing the severed appendage, swinging the other one into her back as it did. The black tendril wrapped around her torso, lifting her off the ground for a moment before slamming her into the ground. It lifted her to perform the same motion, but she phased out of its grip with her semblance.

A purple beam fired from behind a nearby rock, splashing across the side of its face, causing it to shift its attention. It spun on the spot, swinging its tail into the rock, shattering the stone and sending the student hiding behind it to the ground as she tried to hide from the monster.

Robyn ran into view from behind the monster, stabbing her spear into the Grimm's side. It snarled in annoyance, sending a tendril darting under its body and wrapping around her legs. It dragged her beneath its body, flinging her away as she came out the other side, sending her rolling across the ground before cracking her back across a protruding stone on the ground.

Hannah darted towards her partner, diving over a tendril as it shot towards her, rolling across the ground and grabbing hold of her arm, dragging her out of the way as the Grimm's slime splashed against the rock. The faunus rolled to her feet, firing her gun at its eyes while trying to not look directly at them. The rounds peppered the bone mask, none of them making contact with its red orbs unfortunately.

The beast lunged towards them, mouth opened wide, being knocked to the side last second. Misty leapt into frame, her mace head linked by the chain extending from its handle, the spiked head sending a few cracks into the side of its bone mask. The beast growled flicking its tail at her, then a tendril closely following it. Misty managed to leap over the first attack, but was caught mid-air by the second, tendril wrapping around her body, dragging her to its face.

The action was too quick for her to react, her eyes meeting its red trio. She gasped in its grip, her hold on her weapon loosening as she dropped her weapon to clutch at her head. Hannah rushed towards her restrained teammate to try free her from the Grimm, only to be knocked back as another one of its tendrils whipped around and caught her leg, sending her spiralling backwards. The tendril with Misty in its grasp began slamming her into the ground repeatedly, the stone cracking from the impacts, until one final impact resulted in her aura shattered, purple light crackling across her body.

The Grimm raised the tendril again, her limp body travelling with it, ready to slam her into the ground once again. Another shot rang out, the bullet tearing through the tendril, causing it to release the girl. As she fell, Charlie appeared in a burst of black aura beneath her, catching the unconscious girl as she fell before blinking away in another flash of black.

Robyn dashed in from the side, ripping her spear free from its side before spinning it back into a bow, firing an arrow at the top of a nearby rock and pulling on the rope that trailed behind it to pull herself after the arrow, narrowly avoiding another strike from the Grimm's tail.

Misty came to a stop, preparing to fire her gun at the Grimm before Charlie appeared beside her, tackling her out of the way as a rock was thrown at the spot she had been standing at just a moment before. He leapt to his feet, igniting his blades and spinning them quickly in the palms of his hands, disintegrating the blob of slime it had spat at them.

Tina leapt down from above, spinning her sniper into a halberd before bringing it down on the beast's hide, carving a deep gash through its side. It moved to leap towards the silver huntress, but was stopped when a pair of arrows connected by a rope shot into the back of its neck, then the rock beneath it, holding it in place. The huntress took its distraction as an opportunity, stabbing the halberd into its face, aiming for its eyes. The beast noticed her assault, jerking its head backwards, the blade piercing the inside of its mouth instead.

Hannah dashed forwards from behind Charlie, bring her sword up into the base of the tendrils, managing to completely sever the tendrils from its body, causing it to shriek in pain, flailing against the ground, tail crashing into her side. Charlie dashed to its face, leaping on top of its head before slamming blades into two of its eyes. It shook its head in pain, dislodging the student before headbutting him against the ground. Charlie grunted in discomfort before meeting its one remaining eye, screaming out as he slapped his palms to the side of his skull.

The Grimm raised its head ever so slightly, before bringing it back down, taking hold of their leader in its mouth, teeth gnashing into his torso as it thrashed him through the air with the limited space it could get from its tethered position.

'No!' Robyn cried out, darting forwards with her spear in hand, aiming to stab it in the throat. Hannah rush up from the other side with a similar idea in mind, but neither of them managed to enact it, as its thrashing tore the arrow from its head, giving it back the movement it needed. Flailing around, it hit Robyn with its tail, sending her rolling across the ground whilst Hannah phased through the headbutt it aimed at her, slashing her sword across its side after passing through it.

The Grimm roared, spitting him out of its mouth along with a globule of grey slime, which quickly encased their leader. Hannah dodged the projectile, turning quickly to her leader who was now gasping heavily on the floor as he struggled to breath, hands still glued to his temples as black aura crackled across his body as it shattered from the impact with the ground.

Purple blasts of energy splashed across its body once again as Misty re-joined the fight, firing her rail gun at the monster with fury. Robyn rushed to her brother's side, holding his head in her hands. His panic-filled red eyes glanced towards her, his rasping gasps barely audible over the sound of combat behind them.

'We need to get him and Misty out of the way,' Hannah ordered, shaking her partners shoulder to make sure she was still thinking properly. 'Their auras are gone, any more hits from that thing and they won't be getting back up.'

Robyn sat still by her brother for a moment before nodding softly. 'Go get Misty to take him away. She needs to get him to water and fast. Other than that, get it to look my way.'

Hannah nodded before darting off towards the blond student, firing her weapon blindly at the Grimm. It took a snap at her as she run, barely missing as she leapt out of the way. She reached Misty's side, grabbing hold of the girl and dragging her into cover as the tail came slamming down into the ground behind them.

'You need to take Charlie to some water,' Hannah instructed. 'He got hit with the slime, and he's going to pass out if he doesn't get there soon. Only you and I are strong enough to lift him, and you have no aura. The rest of us can stay and fight.'

'But-'

'Now Misty!'

Misty hesitated for a moment before darting towards their fallen leader, slinging her weapon across her back so she could use both hands to carry him, quickly sliding his blades into her belt before taking off. The Grimm tried to attack her, but was distracted as Hannah and Tina rushed in close, unleashing a flurry of blows against the monster to keep it at bay. Hannah didn't dare turn to see if Misty had gotten Charlie out of the way, instead focusing solely on fighting off the Grimm before her.

As they were fighting, Hannah barely heard the whistle of the arrow as it passed overhead, neither the slight thunk as it impacted, but she definitely heard the loud screech as it struck home in the Grimm's last working eye. The head whipped around in a frenzy, grey slime leaking from its mouth like spittle. It began backing up, no longer able to see.

'We've got it now girls!' Tina said in excitement. 'Just keep fighting and we'll – oh what the FUCK?!'

The Grimm reared back with a roar, its back flexing as its rear raised as well. What caught their eyes however was the sight of the three tendrils Hannah had severed only a few moments prior growing once more out of the stumps that she had left. Thankfully, it wasn't like the Hydra Grimm they had taken out during their initiation, so there were still only three of them, but so far just the three had been more than enough to be a threat when the five of them were fighting it, and they didn't have the luxury of the same amount of numbers anymore.

Ducking its head, the three tendrils darted forwards, lashing out randomly in front of the Grimm. Most of the attacks missed, the rest the three of them either blocked, dodged, or took with a pinch of salt as they were thrown backwards on impact. As they got back up, the tendrils snaked across the ground in search of them. Robyn managed to dodge out of the way, but Hannah and Tina weren't as lucky, being plucked from the ground and yanked towards the Grimm.

Hannah phased out of its grip once again, but it appeared to have learnt her trick from the last time she used it, bringing its tail around and hitting her out of the air, sending her sliding across the ground. Tina was less fortunate, the tendril driving her face first into the Grimm's bone mask. She dropped her halberd on impact, trying to grab hold of its face as it drew her away before cracking her against its face again.

She struggled in its grasp, before her aura too fell, silver lights dancing across her body before she was subjected to a few more hits, her body going limp in its grasp. Bored of its toy, the Grimm threw her to the side, her body hitting a nearby rock before sliding down the side, landing in a pile of limbs at the bottom, unmoving.

Robyn fired dust fuelled arrows at its face, various elemental effects exploding around its face as the projectiles impacted. The Grimm turned to her in anger and to Hannah's shock, Robyn dropped her bow, clutching at her head as she hissed in pain. Hannah glared towards the Grimm, noticing that its eyes had regained that brighter red glow to them. Looking now, she saw that even the wounds they had been leaving across its body were slowly closing up.

The Grimm turned to face her, and she averted her gaze, lest she be affected by its mysterious mind tricks too. But what was the point? She was the last one standing now. If the five of them combined had been unable to defeat it, what hope did she have?

The monster reared its head back once again, glaring directly at her. It widened its mouth, preparing to either spit slime at her, or possibly devour her whole. What did it matter? Either way, they had failed.

A few seconds passed before it darted forwards, enclosing her within its mouth in a single bite.

* * *

Misty dropped Charlie next to the small creek of water, dunking his head into the water. He had stopped struggling a few moments prior, which would usually comfort her, but it was also accompanied by his breathing also ending. He lay motionless for a moment, before the struggling began anew once again, this time because he was being held underwater by Misty's strong hold. Removing her hand from behind his head, he surfaced the water, spitting out water, slime and vomit, causing Misty to grimace in disgust. Did she do this too? Gross.

He gasped for air after vomiting, glancing around in panic. 'What happened?'

'It didn't go well,' she whispered. 'Hannah told me to get you out of there. We're both out of aura, and I don't know how well the other three are going to do without us there now.'

Charlie took deep breaths, mind whizzing as he tried to think of a plan. 'We need to get to high ground, we can't just leave them to deal with it by themselves.'

He leapt to his feet, stumbling slightly before righting himself, taking off up the nearest rock path leading to the top of a spire of stone, Misty following him closely. At the peak, they saw that the battle wasn't going well. Tina was slumped in a pile on the ground, and as they watched, Robyn dropped her weapon as she clutched her head.

'Dammit,' Misty whispered. 'How do we stop this thing?'

Charlie watched as the monster turned towards Hannah, mouth dripping as it glared at her, and a terrible, absolutely god-awful plan came to mind.

'Fire cannon,' he ordered, turning on the spot and wrenching his blades from her belt. 'Do it!'

Misty grumbled lightly as he kept his eyes on the monster, praying that the right opportunity would present itself. The monster reared back, opening its mouth as it leant over Hannah. Eyes darting around, lining up the shot that they would need to make. Where did they have to stand? His eyes followed the imaginary vector he had created, growling in frustration as he realised they would need to enact their plan mid-air.

'With me, fire when I say so!' he shouted, pulling her along with him as he leapt over the edge of the spire, praying neither of them messed this up. He kept his gaze on the monster, watching as it devoured their faunus teammate while he placed his blades beneath his feet, feeling the rasping of Misty's rail gun scratching against them.

'Now!' he yelled, igniting his blades as Misty fired her weapon, sending him rocketing towards the Grimm. _Not yet, not yet, not yet, NOW!_

He pushed with his all his might, summoning forth as much aura as he could for another use of his semblance. Despite what many people believed, even though a semblance could still be used when somebody's aura had run dry, it hurt like a bitch to do it, and with the amount of aura he always had to fuel through his body to get it to work, this hurt a lot.

Everything around him reversed in time, the Grimm almost regurgitating Hannah, before leaning back, mouth still open during its act of devouring the faunus. He let it move backwards slightly more than immediately necessary to account for him needing to lead the shot. He released his flow of aura, time continuing around him. He drew his blades forwards, extending them as far as they would, still alight as he dove into its mouth. Holding his mouth shut, he began slashing the insides of its throat, feeling the grey slime splash against his skin, but disregarded it, too focused on his assault of the monster's interior.

He drove a blade upwards, stabbing it through where the brain should be, but then again, he didn't really know the anatomy of this thing all that well, for all he knew that's where its bladder was, if it even had one. It didn't matter though, he continued slashing with his burning blades, the Grimm's body sizzling as he cut it up from the inside.

A shriek emanated from its throat, deafening him from the intensity, but still he continued on, sliding through its insides as he cut it up. It felt like he was in there for minutes, but in reality, he couldn't have been there for more than a few seconds before the Grimm let out a low whine, and he felt the body crash into the rock. The body began disintegrating around him, eventually disappearing entirely and allowing him escape.

Spitting violently, he tried to get as much of the slime away from his mouth to avoid ingesting any now. An angry growl sounded nearby, and as he raised his blades for an attack, he had no time to counter anything as a pair of thin arms wrapped themselves around him tightly.

'What the hell were you thinking?!' his sister shouted into his already sore ears. 'Do you have any idea how stupid that was?!'

'Very,' he chuckled, drawing her into the embrace. 'But, it turns out if you hold your breath, that slime doesn't affect you. We should have tried that earlier, huh?'

She laughed into his shoulder, punching him lightly. They separated after a moment, moving over to Tina's form. Hannah was already crouched next to her, fingers held to her neck. She turned as the twins approached her. 'She still alive, just unconscious.'

'Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm keen to get the hell out of here,' Misty said, approaching from behind. 'We can carry her with us and let her know what happens when she wakes up.'

Charlie nodded, standing up as Hannah lifted the unconscious huntress into her arms. 'Alright, does anyone remember the way back to the boat, because I am completely lost right now.'

It only took them an additional hour of wandering before they found the boat. From the positioning of the sun, they made the rough estimation that it was reaching four in the afternoon. It would take them too long to travel back to the city now, instead they decided to return to the small docks they had used as camp the previous night. Settling Tina down near the fire pit that was still there from the previous night, the four students began preparing the camp for another night. Hannah elected to take first watch as she was the least beaten up out of them all that moment.

Tina didn't wake for another few hours, panicking slightly before they managed to calm her, explaining that she had taken a hard hit, but they had managed to kill the Grimm before anyone had actually died. Their words comforted her, but did little to keep her awake as she fell asleep almost instantly, the rest of them soon following her.

The next morning they slept in, waking a few hours before midday, before they took the boat back across the lake in the direction of Carston. Although they hadn't had the best of sleeps, they were all rested enough to be combat ready if necessary. A few hours of travelling through the woods, fighting off the occasional Grimm, and taking a few stops to drink, eventually led to their arrival at the gates of Carston once again. The bullhead they had taken into the village was still at the landing pads, awaiting their return to take them back to Beacon. The flight was long, and dull, especially since Misty refused to play rock, paper, scissors with Charlie again, saying that she wouldn't even play a game with him again.

They didn't reach Beacon until late at night, the group collectively exiting the bullhead happily, glad to be back home. Tina followed them to the main courtyard, sharing in their conversation as they made their way through the campus.

'Well, this is where we part ways team,' she said, stopping as they turned to head towards the dormitories. 'I'll report in to Ozpin for you, the rest of you deserve some sleep after pulling my ass out of the fire like that.'

The four of them smiled in response, giving her quick nods.

'It was nice to meet you kids,' she said, opening her arms wide to invite a group hug, something that they all welcomed. 'I wouldn't mind seeing you all again sometime. You'll all do well here. Just, if we do meet up, next time let's make sure that it isn't because we're hunting some ridiculously powerful Grimm.'

'What other reason would we meet up?' Misty answered with a smile as the five broke apart, each of them laughing lightly.

'You raise a good point,' Tina grinned. 'I should head up to see Ozpin. Good luck for the tournament, I'll be rooting for you four!'

'Thanks, we'll probably need it with the stupid plans that my brother comes up with,' Robyn replied, giving her brother a light elbow to the side.

After that, the four finally split from the huntress, making their way back to their dorm room, collapsing on their beds, each of them falling asleep before they even hit the mattress.

* * *

The door flung open with a bang, bouncing off of the wall before the person entering growled in anger, slamming it closed behind her, stalking towards her bed and sitting down in anger, the air sizzling around her from the heat she was emitting.

Mercury and Emerald stopped what they were doing, glancing nervously towards the woman as she sat there silently, awaiting to hear what had gotten her so upset.

'I've just received bad news,' she hissed, fist clenched against the bed set alight as she struggled to control her temper, setting off the power within her. 'The Aboleth near Carston has been killed.'

'What?!' Emerald asked in shock. 'How is that possible?!'

'That's a very good question,' Cinder replied. 'I checked the mission boards when they were turned on, and there was one based in that area, so it is possible that a team of students and a hunter were in the area. If they were, they somehow managed to take out a vital part of our long term plan.'

'What are we going to do?' Emerald asked.

Cinder sat silently for a moment, glaring silently at her fiery hand, obviously struggling to extinguish the flames. Eventually, the fire died down, and she glanced up at the two of them. 'Find out which team was there. When you do, get to know them, find out everything you can about them. No ordinary group of students would have been able to take out the Aboleth, even if they had an extraordinarily special hunter with them.'

'We'll go see if we can find anything now,' Emerald said, jerking her head to the side, indicating for Mercury to follow her. 'There are bound to be a few students still awake.'

Cinder waved her away without looking at the girl. 'Do as you wish, just get me that information.'

The thief and the assassin left the room, silently closing the door behind them before walking down the hallway. They made it halfway to the stairs before Mercury spoke up. 'She seemed a little bit pissed off.'

'How perceptive of you Mercury,' she snarled. 'What gave it away?'

'Not sure, I just had this weird feeling when she was talking to us,' he replied sarcastically.

Emerald huffed in response. 'Of course she's pissed off. The Glenn plan was ruined by those other kids, and now she learns another group took out the Aboleth. Both of those were supposed to be important parts to the plan, and now they've both been ruined, making our job a little bit more difficult.'

'To be fair, the Mountain Glenn part still went as planned, it just happened a little early,' Mercury smirked. 'Roman is still captured on the Atlas flagship, which is what we really wanted from that anyway. It's just unfortunate that all that negative energy is going to disappear before the actual plan kicks in.'

'Regardless, you know how much Cinder hates it when things go wrong.'

'Don't worry, I remember what happened last time. So, let's focus on finding out what happened at Carston, shall we?'


	10. Chapter 10: Round One

\- Chapter Ten -

\- Round One -

The arrival of Amity Coliseum over the city of Vale brought a fresh wave of excitement along with it. The prospect of the Vytal Tournament finally beginning washed away all of the negative emotions that had been raised during the Breach last week. The various festive activities that the people in Vale participated in had been a suitable distraction whilst the main event took its time to arrive in the Kingdom, but now that it was here, the atmosphere had changed, and people couldn't wait for the tournament to start.

So, when the day finally came, all of the students who were staying at Beacon were glad that they got personal shuttles to take them up to the Coliseum, as the lines of people waiting to travel to the flying structure were miles long, and easily visible from the air. Teams RWBY, JNPR, CHRM, SSSN and a few other teams had managed to claim on of the personal shuttles to themselves, being some of the first people to travel to the floating arena.

It was also the first opportunity for the members of Team Chrome to properly meet the new addition to their odd crew of people. Although Misty had already spent some time with Sage since their arrival, the rest of the team had not interacted with them very much. It was a slight surprise to learn that they were a second-year team, although not entirely unexpected. They were far too familiar with one another to have only been a first-year team, and although teams RWBY, JNPR and CHRM were all close to one another, team SSSN took that bond of teammates to a new level.

Sun was an ex-Vacuo citizen, also quite obvious, from his lack of care of any respectable clothing. He had decided he didn't want to train in Shade, instead moving to Haven, in the Kingdom of Mistral, claiming he wanted to see more of the world, rather than be bogged down in one place. His partner, Neptune, had been born on one of the various smaller islands around the continent of Anima, moving to the main body of land after his entire village was wiped out by a freak of nature storm.

Scarlet was raised on the high seas, his father being the captain of one of the ships which travelled between the continents of Sanus and Anima. He claimed he had never met his mother, and so lived his years of youth on a ship. Upon accidentally unlocking his aura during a Grimm attack one day, his father made the decision that his son had needed to train to be a huntsman. Scarlet had been reluctant at first, but eventually gave in to his father's wishes, moving to Sanctum and then to Haven afterwards.

Sage's backstory was the complete opposite of his appearance. Whilst on the outside, he appeared tough, as if he had lived a hard life, done whatever he could to survive, he was actually the most normal person out of everyone in their group. He wasn't an orphan, a rich child, survivor of some accident, the bearer of familial issues, an ex-terrorist, he was simply Sage, the child who went to huntsman training schools when he came of age.

Well, there had to be at least one normal person in their group of abnormal friends.

Upon landing, the sixteen students made their way into the locker rooms, checking their equipment had been safely stored by the organisers of the tournament, before making their way up to the seating area, which overlooked the enormous arena in the centre. They were in awe just from the vast amounts of seats which were available in the coliseum. The coliseum could easily fit at least half of the population of Vale within it, after taking in all of the students who were present.

The group claimed the front row along one side of the coliseum. The front four rows were separated from the rest of the seating by a thick wall, and were reserved exclusively for the students. A few people had already taken their seats in anticipation of the official opening ceremony. A few hours passed as they all waited in their seats, the rest of the coliseum slowly filling with citizens, eager to watch the matches between the students. The coliseum travelled around Remnant, taking place in a different Kingdom each year. The previous year it had been in Mistral, the year before that it was in Atlas, then Vacuo. This years was Vale's turn to host the tournament.

Although the tournament was broadcast throughout the entirety of Remnant, it was difficult to get seats if you didn't live in the kingdom it was being held in. There were more people from Vale than any of the other Kingdoms in the coliseum, but that wasn't to say that there weren't millions of others watching from their own homes.

Eventually, Ozpin made his way into the centre of the arena, slowly walking across the metallic floor, his cane clanking against the surface with each step. Reaching centre stage, the Headmaster adjusted his crooked glasses, before leaning forwards into the microphone that had been left on the stage for him.

'Greetings. My name is Professor Ozpin, Headmaster at Beacon Academy, for those who do not know me. It is my pleasure to welcome everybody here today, and everybody watching at home, to the 40th Vytal Festival Tournament!'

The crowd began cheering heavily, and Professor Ozpin waited patiently, standing with one arm folded behind his back, the other pressed against his cane, although he didn't appear to be putting any weight on it. After several moments without an end in sight of the cheering, Ozpin raised his hand, the shouting eventually died down.

'Before I continue, I would ask that all participating students for this year's tournament make their way onto the stage,' Ozpin continued, pausing to allow for a large portion of the student populous to make their way down the service stairs that led onto the stage. The crowd began cheering again, shouting their praises to the various students who were making their ways onto the stage.

Once the last student had taken their spot on the stage, everyone almost instinctually lining up in rows, separating themselves by the academy they had come from, Ozpin began speaking once more. 'These are our Vytal Festival Tournament combatants. The best of all of our students across all years, each of whom have worked hard to earn their place in this tournament.'

'However, let us not forget, that we are here today to remember the horrors of the Great War. Eighty years ago, to this day, was the final day of the decade long war between our Kingdoms. We stand here now, today, celebrating the end of that war, by remembering those times of conflict, by fighting one another once again, but not as enemies, as allies, united as one people, here to embrace each other as equals, and take this opportunity to learn from one another once again, strengthening our bonds as people.'

'Students, I wish you all the best of luck,' Ozpin stated, a small grin on his face. 'Although do forgive me if I am slightly biased towards the students of Vale.'

Laughter rang out through the coliseum, from both the citizens in the stands, and the students standing on the stage. Ozpin turned back to the microphone, pushing his glasses back up his face as they had been sliding down the bridge of his nose. 'The tournament shall begin shortly. Good luck, and enjoy the tournament!'

Cheers rang out once again, and Ozpin began making his way off the arena stage. The students began filing back into the stands once again, moving back into their seats as they awaited the announcement of the first match.

'Ohhh, I wonder who's going to be first?!' Ruby asked in excitement, shaking her fists back and forth before her face. Yang chuckled beside her sister, pulling her hood up and over her head, much to Ruby's annoyance.

'Whoever it is, hopefully it's a good first fight,' Sun answered, leaning back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. 'The first fight is always one of the most important. If it's a bad one, it doesn't do well for the atmosphere of the audience for the rest of the tournament.'

'So, we'll hope it's you four then,' Yang teased. 'You're all pretty entertaining to watch in general, so you must be entertaining in combat too.'

Sun rolled his eyes at the brawlers comment, leaning back into his seat even further. The air was now filled with conversation, each person in the coliseum excited for the first fight of the tournament. Talk filled the air for the next few minutes, before a loud, booming voice cut through the air, boosted by the speakers throughout the stadium.

'Ho ho! Welcome everyone, to the beginning of the Vytal Festival Tournament!' Professor Port's voice echoed throughout the air. 'I am Professor Port, teacher at Beacon Academy, and alongside me is my fellow colleague, Professor Oobleck!'

'Doctor!' they heard a second voice interrupt.

'And we will be your hosts for the tournament this year!' Professor Port continued, ignoring his co-hosts comment. 'Now, for those of you who are watching for the first time, we will run through the rules for you before we announce the competitors for the first match. Professor, would you be so kind as to explain the rules for us all?'

There was a light growl over the intercom, as Doctor Oobleck no doubt gave Professor Port a death glare. 'Of course, Peter. As you know, the tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds; teams, doubles and singles. Age and school year are irrelevant! In this tournament, the only attribute tested is skill!'

'Correct!' Professor Port cut in. 'From each academy, four teams for each school year are elected, resulting in 64 competing teams, those of you who are quick with math, that's 256 students! For the first two rounds of the tournament, we go through the teams rounds, where we will be having 4 on 4 matches between the teams. Following those two rounds, we move into the doubles, where each remaining team will elect two members to represent them for another two rounds of combat. This is then followed by the winning pairs choosing one member to represent them once again. This will result in four remaining combatants, who will make their way through the semi-finals, into the finals matches, in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!'

'Yes! Now, we will begin the randomization process for the first match of the first round of the tournament!' Doctor Oobleck exclaimed, holographic projections appearing around the stadium, eight empty slots filling the screens. Images of students began scrolling through the slots, groups of four students per side, each side being a whole team. The images eventually came to a stop, eight unfamiliar faces resting in place.

'Our first match has been decided!' Professor Port called out. 'Team Vermilion of Shade, and Team Eucalyptus of Haven!'

'This will definitely be a good fight,' Neptune commented. 'Eucalyptus is one of the best teams at Haven. Fourth year students. They're a bit strange, but really talented. And from what I've heard, Vermilion is pretty good too. Only a second-year team, like us, but apparently, they have good control over a battlefield.'

'What does that mean?' Jaune asked, scratching his head lightly.

'They're good at controlling their enemy's actions, manipulating them around the battlefield into positions that favour their own needs,' Scarlet explained. 'They have a whole range of skillsets between the four of them that make them effective as a team, no matter who their enemy is.'

An assortment of colourful warriors began marching onto the stage of the arena once more, the oddly flamboyant looking members of Team Eucalyptus, and the vivid students of Team Viridian. The students gathered in the centre of the stage, a metallic octagon surrounded by large plates of metal at each edge of the centrepiece of the arena.

Holograms appeared in the air above the plates, scrolling through various images of different environments. The icons scrolled through, coming to a stop at an image of a thick forest behind Team Viridian and a geyser field behind Team Eucalyptus. The plates surrounding the octagonal plate retracted back into the floor, the real versions of the chosen environments rising into place around the metal plate.

Thick, luscious green trees covered one end of the arena, whilst the other turned into a grey wasteland, small pools of water scattered throughout the area, with jets of high pressure water bursting forth from the ground. The students readied their weapons, dropping into a combat position as Professor Port began his countdown, the crowd cheering heavily throughout the stadium. As the countdown reached zero, the fighters charged into battle, thus beginning the first match of the Vytal Tournament.

* * *

The fights continued through the rest of the day, each one separated by a quarter of an hour break as the next competitors readied themselves after the previous fight. The group watched many amazing matches, the first match of the day being one of the best, closely followed by Team Coffee's fight. The penultimate match by Team Crimson, which contained Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, and their recently arrived teammate Noire, had a spectacular match as well, albeit extremely quick. Their opponents seemed vastly unprepared for the utter ferocity of the fourth-year team.

After their match, Professor Port's voice boomed throughout the stadium once again. 'That was an absolutely stunning match! Wouldn't you agree Barty?'

'Yes Peter,' Doctor Oobleck replied. 'I'm sure Team Crimson will do well in the next few rounds of the tournament. Now, we have time for one last match for the day, and tomorrow, we will continue with the second half of the first round of the tournament.'

Another set of images ran through, resulting in the last two teams of the day to be brought up on the holographic screens across the coliseum. Team Flood of Shade and Team Chrome of Beacon.

'Would the final two teams of the day please make their ways down to the arena for the last match of the day?' Professor Port asked, Charlie and the rest of his team making their way to their feet.

'Good luck you four!' Ruby cheered, holding up her hand for a hi-five from each of them, an action which each of them mimicked as they walked past her. Several minutes later, they were all down in the centre of the arena, standing opposite their first opponents for the tournament.

Their team leader, Floyd, a mountain of a man stood in the middle of their team, large war axe strapped to his back. Thin leather armour was strapped across his body, less condensed around the areas of his body which would require more movement. He was almost missing enough armour that it could almost be considered useless, but it would likely protect him from very basic and light attacks.

A lizard faunus stood by his side, Drake, roughly the same height as Charlie, leaving him two feet shorter than his leader. A pair of curved swords were sheathed at his hips, blue robes wrapped around his scaled body, a long red tail poking out the back of his robes.

Their last two team members were both incredibly short, probably not even reaching four and a half feet in height. One a female, Orchid, with bright white hair and heavy plate armour wielded a hefty mace which looked like it should have been far too heavy for her to wield and a heavy shield, nearly the same size as her. The other, Lucas, wore a mixture of purple cloths and leathers, a longsword only slightly shorter than he was strapped to his side.

They were an odd mixture of characters, the two giants standing beside their two smaller teammates. They stood one the other side of the centrepiece, each of them eyeing up the members of Team Chrome, no doubt looking for any advantage they could get.

'Alright team,' Charlie whispered, barely loud enough for them all to hear him above the roar of the crowd. 'Listen up. Misty, Hannah, the two of you will need to go after the two with the heavier weapons. That axe and mace are going to be too much for either me or my sister to handle if we aren't careful. Robyn, you have the reach with your spear to deal with that longsword. I'd need to get in closer to touch him. I'll go after their faunus. If anything goes wrong, regroup back to me, and we'll come up with another strategy, got it?'

He heard small mutters of agreement, the four of them waiting patiently as the stadium randomly chose the two environments they would be fighting in. Behind them rose an environment almost akin to Mountain Glen, destroyed buildings and rubble littering the ground, whilst behind their opponents rose a grey wasteland, large yellow crystals protruding from the ground, lightning arcing between the dust spires. The eight students drew their weapons, readying themselves for the bout of combat ahead of them. Professor Port's countdown barely registered in their heads as they readied themselves.

'Begin!' the portly man's voice echoed throughout the stadium, managing to cut above the cheers of the audience.

Team Flood made a strong start, their team leader charging forwards, the already mountainous student appearing to grow in size until he was standing twice as tall as Charlie. The small armoured girl ran alongside him, jumping into the air, the now twelve-foot tall student catching her in the palm of his hand as if she were nothing but a small ball, throwing her forwards towards Team Chrome.

The lizard faunus threw his blades, the weapons spinning through the air, curving towards the four members of Team Chrome, forcing them backwards a few steps. The curved swords swung back around towards their wielder, who caught them out of the air before throwing them once again, the boomerang blades flying back and forth between the two groups.

The small girl crashed shield first into Hannah's blade, the force of the impact sending the faunus girl backwards, rolling across the ground. She raised her shield as she landed back on the ground, deflecting Misty's own mace, countering with hers, sending the head into the back of Misty's leg, dropping her to the ground before delivering a quick uppercut with her weapon, resulting in Misty being sprawled across the floor.

The gargantuan student charged Charlie and Robyn, swinging his axe towards the both of them, who narrowly managed to duck beneath the weapon, its blade thicker than their torsos. The monstrous boy strode after them, swinging the axe towards the two of them, forcing them to separate from Hannah and Misty. Charlie took hold of his sister's hand, the two of them vanishing a flash of black energy.

Floyd halted for a second, eyes scanning the battlefield for his opponents before another flash of black appeared before his face, a hard boot connecting with his jaw. He stumbled from the impact, feeling blades dance across his chest, aura deflecting the blows before they could do any real damage.

Misty and Hannah traded blows with the smaller girl, but failed to land any hits as she deflected their attacks with either the wide shield she carried, or the weapon in her hand. The two teammates weren't as fortunate when attempting to deflect Orchid's own attacks, the head of her mace cracking against their bodies, forcing them to stumble backwards from the impacts.

They caught a lucky break as an arrow flitted past them, shattering across her plate armour, but distracting the short girl enough for Misty to land a solid hit across her side, sending the heavily armoured girl rolling across the floor. They moved into action once again, Misty bringing her mace down on the prone girl, the strike barely blocked by her shield, whilst Hannah moved to aid Charlie against his opponent, but was blocked as a pair of curved blades slashed towards her, forcing her backwards as the lizard faunus began a vicious assault.

On the top of one of the ruined buildings, Robyn nocked another arrow, drawing her bow and releasing the arrow, the explosive payload stunning the giant fighting her brother. Another volley of arrows aimed at the members of the opposing team gave her teammates small openings to deliver quick attacks to dwindle their aura reserves down slightly. As she loaded her next arrow, the hairs along the back of her neck stood up straight, her aura warning her of impending danger.

Spinning on the spot, she spotted what appeared to be a whirlpool of white light pointed directly towards her. The fourth and final member of Team Flood, who she had been struggling to spot leapt through the whirlpool, sword drawn and pointed directly at her chest. Robyn fired her arrow, the small boy batting it aside with his blade, before bringing it back around for a strike at her side, which she narrowly blocked with her bow. Pressed against the edge of the rooftop, Robyn didn't have the room to try and use her spear, and had to resort to deflecting the small boys blows with her bow.

Unfortunately, the length of his sword trumped her defensive abilities, forcing her back enough to the point where he landed a solid blow, causing her to stumble over the edge of the roof. As she fell, she nocked an arrow, drawing as she fell. A flash of white filled her eyes, and she her back hit solid ground. Looking up, she had somehow made her way into the electrical crystal wasteland, separated from the rest of her team.

Lucas, the small student waved at her from the rooftop she had just fallen from, thrusting his hand forwards, another white whirlpool appearing before him. The same sensation rushed through her being, instincts telling her to duck to the side just as he teleported behind her, blade cutting through the air where she had just been standing. Spinning her weapon, she struck forwards as it shifted into a spear, the tip of her weapon grazing along her opponent's shoulder. Spinning it back around her body, she began the fluid motions of her combat style, the pair exchanging blows with one another.

Lucas gave her a grin, thrusting his hand forwards as she jabbed her spear towards him, the tip of her weapon passing through the strange portal he had summoned. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the secondary portal that was used to pass between two points a few feet away, her spear jabbing out the end, stabbing into one of the dust crystals which littered the area. A jolt of electricity lifted her from her feet, sending her backwards onto her back, groaning loudly from the sensation.

Hannah struggled to combat Drake's dual blades, her weapon was too slow to combat his quick motions, and he relentlessly chased after her, giving her no opening to move away from him. She raised her blade to one side to block what appeared to be a strike from her right, but was a feint, the real strike coming from her left. A comforting flash of black and the sound of swords connecting filled the air.

Not even needing instructions, Hannah took the opening Charlie had given her, phasing through her opponent, raising her gun and firing towards the giant who was charging after Charlie. The bullets sparked off of his aura, doing little to slow him down. Shifting back to her sword, Hannah raised the weapon above her head to block his overhead strike, the power of the attack forcing her down to one knee. He kicked out at her, stumbling as she phased through his attack, slashing at his hamstrings as she emerged behind him.

The crowd continued to cheer as the battle got more and more intense, blows being traded between each of the combatants. Floyd appeared to be a crowd favourite amongst the current fighters, everyone evidently impressed by what must have been his semblance. The ability to become bigger than most Grimm was certainly a contributing factor to why Team Chrome was having a lot of difficulty. Hannah and Misty were both strong, but even when the two linked up together, he was easily able to overpower the pair, and being more than twice their height limited their ability to do much against him. With their covering fire from Robyn taken out of the equation, they didn't have any more opening created for them either.

After the initial clash, Floyd and Orchid, the tallest and shortest members of Team Flood had teamed up, the pair working together as they fought against Misty and Hannah. Floyds immense size made it difficult for them to hit anything but him, as he would quickly move either his weapon, or himself in the way of any blows directed towards Orchid, giving her to opportunity to retaliate back at either of the two girls, protected by her shield, and apparent bodyguard.

Robyn was still dancing through the electrical wasteland on the far edge of the arena, away from the rest of her team, unable to get back to them. Amidst the flurry of blows Lucas would rain down on her, she also had to be aware of his tricks with his semblance, a lesson she had quickly learnt after her first few tumbles through his portals, as well as the environmental hazard all around the two of them. What made the matter worse, was that Lucas' blade appeared to be able to attract any nearby bolts of electricity, which would result in a particularly shocking clash between their weapons.

In fact, Charlie was currently the only one of his entire team able to hold his own against his opponent. Whilst Drake was skilled, he was already unmatched when it came to Charlie's proficiency with swordplay, and with Charlie's semblance thrown into play, he had no chance of winning.

Which is why he seemed to be fighting in a passive-aggressive manner, allowing Charlie to throw most of the attacks so that he wouldn't be wasting his time and energy on trying to best the opponent who was out of his league, instead staying on the defensive, trying to give his teammates as much time as he could to take out the rest of Team Chrome, so they could all focus on Charlie at once. He had watched the boys match with Pyrrha Nikos a few weeks ago, and it was quickly decided that he was the main threat of the group.

He still threw out blows every now and then, mostly in the attempt to keep Charlie's interest on himself, something his opponent noticed after a few minutes of combat. When Charlie began trying to move away from the lizard faunus, Drake would move back on the offensive, bringing Charlie's attention back to himself. He was the bait, as horrible as it sounded, and yet he was the best suited to the task. His own partner, Lucas, was doing the same with their archer, taking away their long-range attacks.

As soon as Floyd and Orchid dealt with those other two girls, the match would be won.

What Drake had failed to notice however, was that as he was fighting with Charlie, his opponent had slowly been pushing him towards the electrical wasteland half of the field. It was subtle movements, not enough for someone to take notice of as they were made, but if they were paying enough attention, they would see that over the last few minutes, they had slowly been making their way out of the ruins and towards the other half of the arena.

Drake only noticed this when it was too late.

Charlie unleashed a flurry of blows, Drake deflecting a few of them before electing to step backwards to avoid the rest, his back pressed against a solid object, and a shock ran through his body. Leaping forwards, he was met with Charlie's blades once more, a grin now crossing his opponents face. He had been played.

Two quick flourishes of his blades later, and great walls of flame erupted around the lizard faunus, trapping him against the crystal, the electricity in the air humming around him. Charlie flung a flaming dagger towards the crystal, too fast to intercept. The resulting explosion of electricity and fire engulfed Drake, forcing him forwards into the wall of flame, singeing him even further, before receiving a quick kick to the chest, driving him into the ground. A flurry of blows followed, which quickly finished off the rest of his aura, dark red lightning crackling across his body as it shattered. A loud buzzer rang through the coliseum, and the crowd seemed to grow even louder.

One down, three to go.

Robyn tried to manipulate Lucas' next portal to her advantage the next time he made one. Dashing through the white whirlpool of energy, she leapt into the air, planting a foot on the side of the crystal. Not being grounded, the current had no reason to flow into her. Taking another step up the crystal, she pushed off, spinning in the air and aiming an arrow at her opponent. Not having expected this tactic, he wasn't prepared for the cluster of arrows that she fired towards him. The projectiles shattered against his aura, whittling it down even further.

Having made the two portals close together as he always had, Robyn managed to close the distance between the two of them quickly, kicking out at him, knocking him backwards, right into the waiting blades of her brother. A few quick slashes and he was out for the count, his aura dropped below the 15% mark that was used to determine when someone was eliminated from a match. Another blast from the buzzer sounded as Lucas was eliminated.

'Stay here,' Charlie ordered. 'Give us the cover we need!'

Robyn nodded quickly, drawing another arrow and firing towards the giant enemy the rest of their team was fighting as her brother vanished in another flash of black energy. From the sheer size of him, and how little his aura had gone down since the beginning of the match, she doubted her arrows would do much against him, unless they were fuelled with dust properties. Casting aside the idea of all the lien she was throwing away by doing this, she began picking form her dust arrows, firing them towards the mountain of muscle.

Misty ducked down low as Hannah blocked Floyd's next strike, swinging her mace towards Orchid's small form, her strike ringing out against the metal shield. She drew her hand back as Orchid released a counter attack, her own mace swinging past Misty's face. Floyd took a step forwards, forcing Hannah to take hold of Misty's shoulder, phasing them out of his path and further away from the pair. His size made it impossible for them to hold any ground, as his legs were nearly taller than them.

Charlie appeared by their side, blade set alight, swinging them in what appeared to be a wild manner, yet was perfectly calculated to prevent the possibility of a counter-attack from their opponents. Floyd took a step back to avoid the flaming swords, unable to use his large weapon in such close quarters. Instead, Orchid stepped forwards, bashing her shield forwards towards Charlie. The dark-haired twin stepped back, bringing his blades down in an overhead arc, clashing against her shield as she raised it above her head. She pushed them away, drawing her shield in close, before erupting in a bright flash of light.

Everyone glanced away, their vision stained purple from the light that had burst forth from her body. Large wisps of purple aura danced across her body, the small girl still shining brightly in the middle of the stadium. She swung her mace upwards, the blow connecting with Charlie's jaw, sending him sprawling through the air, swords clattering to the floor as he dropped them. Floyd stepped forward, taking hold of Hannah in one hand, picking her up and throwing her through the support pillar of one of the nearby buildings, the whole structure crumbling down on top of her.

Misty danced backwards, still blinded by the light, but could hear the sound of the plate armour clanking together as Orchid rushed her position. She raised her weapon, shifting it into its railgun form, firing the energy beam from her rifle in the direction of her opponent. She heard the sound of the shot splashing across Orchid's shield, far closer than she would have liked to hear it.

There was a crack as Orchid's mace hit the side of her knee, forcing Misty to the ground, before another brutal uppercut hit her under the chin, causing her to reel backwards, falling to the ground. The sounds of clanking armour ran away from her, and by the sounds of the crowd shouting in both approval and displeasure, she knew that she had been eliminated.

The buzzer sounded for the third time.

Robyn panicked slightly as Floyd turned to face her, the twelve-foot tall fighter bearing down on her, barely breaking five feet tall. He began taking great, lumbering steps in her direction, the floor of the arena quaking beneath them. She fired quickly, setting a few traps in his path, tripwires weaving between the various crystals, the thin wire difficult to spot against the grey of the wasteland.

The first few tripwires exploded in a cacophony of various dust effects, fire, lightning and ice being the most frequent of the bunch, as they were the most common forms of dust used for combat. She let loose a few more arrows his way through the blasts of dust, slowly backing away, careful to stay away from any nearby crystals, and going nowhere near the ones close enough to arc lightning between themselves.

Floyd's axe came flying through the fire and smoke towards her, spinning end over end. She attempted to dodge it, but it was already too close, and she couldn't move fast enough, the blade of the axe slamming into her chest, knocking her to the ground and taking the air from her lungs. Thunderous steps shook the ground, and in a few seconds, he was looming over her, glaring down at her with what looked like an almost apologetic look. He raised a foot and brought it down on her torso, and with that she could feel what remained of her aura being depleted.

The fourth buzzer rang out.

Charlie stumbled to his feet on the other side of the arena, blinking heavily as his vision slowly returned. Orchid raced in his direction, mace raised above her head before swinging it towards him. He dodged backwards, scanning across the battlefield to look for his weapons, seeing them abandoned on the floor. Dodging and weaving around Orchid's next few strikes, he disengaged from her, disappearing and reappearing next to his blades, picking them up and returning to the smaller girl, unleashing a flurry of blows almost too fast to follow.

Orchid's shield was raised before her, each of Charlie's strikes bouncing off the polished steel. Behind the smaller girl, Hannah quietly phased her way out of the rubble of the building, sliding up behind the smaller girl and harshly sent her sword careening into Orchid's back. The smaller girl was lifted from her feet, where she met both of Charlie's flaming blades, crashing into her plate armour. The small explosion of the two blades colliding sent her tumbling backwards, dealing just enough damage to eliminate her from the match.

Five buzzes now. The crowd was in a frenzy, only two combatants were left. None of the other matches today had been this close.

That just left them with the goliath of a student left in the arena with them. Glancing up at one of the various screens around the room didn't do well to encourage them, his remaining aura levels being higher than both of theirs combined.

'What's the plan?' Hannah asked, raising her sword as Floyd turned to face the two of them from the opposite side of the arena, hefting his great axe onto his shoulder.

'Use your gun,' Charlie said, coming up with the plan on the spot. 'When he gets close enough, he'll attack us. Grab me and phase through it, I'll set up a wall of fire to try blind him, or at least push him back slightly. From there, I'm going to need you to do all of the blocking, my swords won't block his axe.'

'Alright, let's do this,' Hannah replied, raising a single fist, the two bumping the backs of their hands together. The faunus girl shifted her weapon into an LMG, aiming down the sights and unloading the magazine on their foe. The slow firing of the weapon allowed for each of her shots to connect, their heavy impact normally enough to do heavy damage in a battle, but only draining very small amounts of his aura after every dozen or so shots. He lumbered towards the two teammates, raising his axe a few steps away from them to bring it down on them.

Charlie slashed his blades across the ground at the last second, a wall of fire erupting in Floyd's face as the axe passed through Charlie's form. The giant took a quick step back to escape the fire, giving Hannah and Charlie the time to prepare their next move. Raising her sword, Hannah gave Charlie a platform to stand on, watching as he leapt into the air, spinning his blades at Floyd's upper torso, the fiery blades cutting into his aura.

Hannah charged forth after her leader, slashing her blade up the side of Floyd's leg, bring it down for a secondary strike, cleaving the sword across his knee. She caught sight of Charlie behind Floyd, slashing and hacking at the boy's legs, his blades glancing off of Floyd's grey aura. The air was filled with the screams and cheers of the crowd, the sound of weapons clashing together as the three continued their desperate battle. The ringing of steel, the crackling of aura, the roar of flames, all merged together into one sound of battle, one that the three combatants no longer heard, as they fought for victory.

Floyd stabbed the end of his axe into the ground, blocking Hannah's blade with the shaft of his weapon, spinning on the spot and holding up his arm, catching Charlie's blades on his leather vambrace, pushing him away roughly. Turning back around to Hannah, Floyd clenched his fingers into a fist, the faunus girl too busy leading a strike into his opposite side, not noticing the incoming attack.

A flash of black energy occurred behind Hannah, and something roughly pushed her out of the way. Flicking her eyes behind her, she saw the giant fist slam into Charlie's side, sending him rolling across the ground, bouncing from the impact, dark black aura crackling across his body as it shattered.

Hannah continued with her strike, bringing the sword up the inside of his guard, slashing across his chest, then up his torso, down low to his knee, stabbing it into his gut, then an uppercut where her blade ran across the bottom of his jaw, the massive blade of her sword snapping his head back. He toppled over, crashing into the ground with a thunderous boom. Hannah raised her sword to continue her assault when a buzzer went off, signalling his elimination.

Sound almost rushed back to her, as if she had been deaf to anything outside her battle, the cheers of the crowd ringing through the coliseum, onto the arena floor and engulfing her. She smiled, sheathing her blade across her back and waving up at the people in the stands.

'And with that extremely close finish, Team Chrome shall move on to the second round!' Professor Port exclaimed.

Hannah fell to her knees as the rest of the combatants across the field began picking themselves up from where they lay, converging in the centre of the arena, where they began congratulating each other.

'That was a good fight,' Floyd said with a grin, now shrunk back down to his normal eight -foot tall self, shaking everyone's hands with his own enormous mitts. 'I wouldn't mind getting to train with you all some other time.'

'Right back at you,' Charlie said, rubbing the side of his chest. 'That was a wicked left hook you pulled at the end there.'

'You sent him flying ass over elbow!' Misty laughed, giving her partner a nudge to the side.

'We almost had you at the start though,' Lucas teased, crossing his arms with a sly grin across his face. 'You weren't expecting us to be so aggressive right out the door, did you?'

'It threw us off a bit,' Robyn admitted. 'But we managed to adjust.'

'That you did,' Orchid smiled. 'But now you're under the pressure to win for us too. We at least want to lose to the winning team.'

'We'll try out best,' Hannah promised.

'That concludes the matches for today,' Doctor Oobleck's voice echoed over the loudspeakers. 'Please leave the coliseum in a calm and orderly fashion!'

* * *

Mercury and Emerald sauntered their way towards the group of students next to the docking station for the student air ships. Although only Team Chrome had fought a battle today, Cinder still wanted them to try and get as much information as possible about the groups. Especially Team Chrome, the first-year team who somehow managed to take out one of the oldest Grimm in existence. From what Mercury and Emerald had heard, the Aboleth didn't get to see any people, so maybe it wasn't used to the new breed of hunters and huntresses in Remnant, but it shouldn't have been defeated by enemies so young.

'Hey Emerald! Hey Mercury!' Ruby cheered, waving the two over. It was almost amusing how easy it was to become friends with her. They barely ever spent time with one another, and yet she had apparently gained the undying trust of the young girl.

'Hey Ruby,' Emerald replied, putting on her fake persona of a happy school girl. 'How are you doing?'

'Oh, you know, same as usual,' Ruby answered. 'We were here all day watching the matches. You guys did really well by the way!'

'Thanks,' Emerald said, feigning appreciation from the girl's words. 'They were really inexperience though, it was only their first year. Not to say first year teams can't do well of course! We saw your friends fighting just now, they seem really well coordinated, and experienced.'

'Aww, thanks Emerald,' Misty said. 'That means a lot coming from you.'

'I'm just hoping we don't meet at any point further down the line,' Charlie said. 'By the looks of some of your kicks, they hit even harder than that punch I took from Floyd.'

'Well maybe next time don't jump in front of it!' Weiss' shrill voice cut across the sound of chatting people in the background. 'Seriously, you didn't have to take her place, you could have just moved her out of the way! That way you wouldn't have needed to take the hit, not causing that stupidly large bruise you have on your side!'

Weiss poked Charlie in the side, causing him to hiss in pain, clutching at his side. 'Yeah, I know. Please don't do that, it really hurts. Besides, I acted on instinct, I didn't have much time to consider what to do!'

'Don't even try to play that card! You literally have all the time in the world to make choices!' Weiss argued, causing Charlie to roll his eyes. Emerald shot Mercury a glance at her phrasing, catching his subtle hand motion to have her calm down as Weiss continued talking. 'Next time think for a few seconds before you do something stupid, no offense Hannah.'

'None taken,' the faunus girl replied, raising her hands in submission with a smile on her face.

'They're like an old married couple, don't you think?' Yang asked Emerald, motioning towards Weiss and Charlie. 'Fighting over something really stupid.'

'Sounds like me and Em over here,' Mercury smirked, elbowing Emerald in her side. 'Your ride's here by the way, you might want to take it. Never know how long the next one will take. They aren't the fastest of ships.'

'What about you two?' Pyrrha asked, stepping forwards from her team. 'There should be enough room for you to join us.'

'No, we're waiting for Cinder and Noire,' Emerald lied. 'They headed for the bathroom a while back. We thought that they might have been waiting here, but I guess they're still in the stadium somewhere.'

'No problems,' Ruby said. 'Maybe we can catch up later?'

'Yeah, maybe later,' Mercury said, putting an arm around Emerald's shoulder and leading her away.

'Seeya Ruby!' Emerald called over her shoulder, waving goodbye to the students. As soon as her back was turned to them, she rolled her eyes in frustration.

'Well, aren't you enjoying spending time with our new friends,' Mercury teased, letting his arm fall from her shoulder.

'Ugh, don't get me started,' Emerald replied.

'But, you did hear little Ms Schnee's comment about our dear friend, Mr Arduin, didn't you?'

'Yes, I did,' Emerald nodded. 'What do you think they meant?'

'Well, to hazard a guess, having all the time in the world could be a literal statement,' Mercury said. 'Maybe he can stop time? The "teleportation" is him moving in place whilst he's stopped time.'

'If that's true, couldn't he just win any fight he's in within a matter of seconds?' Emerald questioned. 'We haven't seen him do anything like that, at all.'

'He could be hiding it,' Mercury said. 'Why would you show your trump card so early on in the tournament, or at all? A little like our friend, Ms Nikos.'

'I'm not sure,' Emerald commented. 'We should ask Cinder. She might have a better idea about what they meant.'

'We may have to wait a while. We did just ditch the most recent flight back to Beacon,' Mercury commented. 'Maybe we could find an abandoned bathroom stall to pass the time? I'm still sure that you want me.'

'In your dreams, Mercury,' Emerald said in disgust, pushing him away.

'Ah, but that's where you do all the most interesting things,' Mercury joked, fending off the punch she threw towards him.

* * *

 **I took a bit of a different approach to the way I wrote combat this time. There were far too many perspectives to tell the fight from, and with how I wanted to move things around, so they weren't all near each other, there would have been too many breaks between perspectives and would have been really hard to read.**

 **I don't know if I'd do it like that again, I'd probably just stick to writing from one person's perspective and have them noticing the fighting around them as background content. Who knows, we'll see what happens I guess.**

 **In other news, I have another story idea in the works. It would be an AU story, and when I was writing the first chapter, I was finding myself really getting into it. So keep an eye out for that at some point. A similar story just to get an idea what it's like, is a really good fic called 'Of Vale Blood' by Zeroan. Give it a look if you want to read a really good story.**

 **Otherwise, adieu!**


	11. Chapter 11: Not Part of the Plan

\- Chapter 11 -

\- Not Part of the Plan –

Cinder hummed to herself quietly, wrapping her head around the new information her partners had brought her. Although she normally preferred information to be handed to her with concrete evidence, leaving her certain that the information was correct, the guesses that her underlings had provided her with were welcome. Ever since she learnt that some First-Year team had taken out the Aboleth, she had been furious, ordering both Emerald and Mercury to find out anything they could about Team Chrome. Hell, she was still furious after they accidentally let Ruby slip past them on the night of the dance.

Initially, it hadn't been too difficult for Mercury to try and get to know them, Emerald drawing the short straw and being stuck with trying to learn about Team RWBY, whilst Mercury stuck with Team CHRM. Within the week, he had come back with enough information about the girls to confirm that they weren't too much of a threat. His lack on anything about Charlie however was frustrating to Cinder though.

So, when the pair came back from Amity Coliseum that afternoon, claiming that they finally had an idea on his semblance, the one thing they didn't really know about him, her interest had been peaked. She had checked outside their allocated door room to be sure nobody else was around, securely locking the door after ensuring it was safe to talk.

'As unrealistic as it might sound,' Emerald had started their conversation, her comment not really inspiring much faith in Cinder at first. 'Is it possible to have a semblance which allows you to stop time?'

'It's possible,' Cinder thought, becoming quiet as she began thinking in her mind, excluding Mercury and Emerald from her thought process. A thin, but menacing grin widened across her face. 'A Timekeeper?'

'What's that?' Emerald asked, narrowing her eyes with her eyebrows raised, never having heard of that name before.

'Nothing you need to worry about,' Cinder smirked, sitting back down on her bed, now seeming much more comfortable than before. 'He will take care of himself in due time. For now, however, he stands in our way. I'll rig the doubles rounds so that you two will face them in the doubles. If he goes through, which I would assume he will, the two of you will need to take them out of the competition.'

'You do realise he isn't exactly a pushover, right?' Mercury asked, lying down on the floor and folding his arms behind his head. 'He took on Pyrrha Nikos and the two drew. I know you don't want to continue through, just in case you draw too much attention, but the both of us would still struggle against him by ourselves.'

'I have faith in you Mercury,' Cinder cooed, calming the grey-haired boy quickly. 'Stick with the same plan you were going to use no matter which battle you were to be in. Distract the boy whilst Emerald takes out whoever his partner is. She will then rejoin you, with the two of you working together, you should be able to take him down.'

'You will need to use your semblance Emerald,' Cinder warned the green-haired girl. 'If my own theory is right, you'll need to manipulate what he sees if you want the chance to land a hit on him. He will know your attack before you make it, so if he cannot see what you are really doing, he cannot react to it.'

'Wait, how does he know that?' Emerald asked, the look of confusion still not leaving her face.

'If I am correct, and I would say I am,' Cinder gloated. 'His semblance is not the ability to stop time, but to reverse it instead. He can replay events over and over until he gets an outcome he likes, and is why he does so well in combat. The times he makes mistakes is when there is no other way out for him, ergo they aren't even mistakes, just him accepting fate.'

'And the teleportation?' Mercury asked from the floor.

'He moves time around himself. Instead of moving himself back to his original position, he stays where he is, but everything else resets around him,' the vixen replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'It might be useful to give us that floating block environment then,' Mercury said. 'If I recall, they run off of random coding, so they won't move the same each time. If I can lure him into there, I might be able to throw him off his game. He can't predict what isn't the same every time.'

'Alright, what happened to you? That was way too smart of a thought to have actually come from your brain,' Emerald taunted, drawing a frown to Mercury's face. 'But, it is a good plan. I'll give it to you this time.'

'Wait, what are you giving to me?' Mercury smirked up at her, causing her to throw a nearby pillow at his face, his small chuckle only serving to irritate her even more.

Normally Cinder wasn't one to tolerate their fooling around. To be perfectly honest, she would have preferred it if the two would just get together already, at least then they wouldn't be dancing back and forth between each other, throwing out subtle jokes but not actually doing anything about it. If you liked someone, there was no point in messing around.

Not that Cinder ever had that luxury. She had needed to seduce some people time to time through her work, and she had been able to get them wrapped around her finger before she had ever even needed to take her dress off. These two had that much sexual tension between them that even the daftest of people could sense it.

'Do we need to coordinate anything for the second round?' Emerald asked Cinder. 'And where's our last teammate?'

'Little Noire is busy taking care of a few things for her side of the plan,' Cinder purred. 'Not to worry, she will be back in time for our next tournament battle. Until then, rest up, but make sure you know who is being send through to the doubles rounds so that we can make things go our way.'

'Yes ma'am,' Emerald nodded, lying down on her bed.

'Ugh, it's too early to sleep, I'm going for a walk,' Mercury said, leaping up from the floor and making his way out the door. 'If either of you want to join me, there's room for two.'

When neither of them moved, he simply shrugged his shoulders and left, closing the door behind him quickly. Emerald turned to Cinder, still wanting to know what she was talking about before. Sometimes she only said things in private with Emerald, Mercury hadn't been with them as long, and hadn't heard of Cinder's master yet.

'So, Timekeeper?' Emerald asked again, hoping to gain some insight from the fiery woman. She received a glare from her instead, indicating that she was pushing at something that she didn't really need to know about.

'That isn't of any concern to you,' Cinder informed Emerald, the girl turning her head away, knowing her place. 'All you need to know is that right now, he is a serious threat to us if we aren't careful. If we play our cards right, and wait for the right time, he will most likely end up taking care of himself for us.'

Her answer still didn't put Emerald's confusion to rest, but she knew that it was all she would get until Cinder decided that she deserved to know more. Still, she wished that Cinder would trust her a little more every now and then. As much as she owed her, it still frustrated Emerald that Cinder didn't seem to think her worthy of information. Pushing the thoughts out of her head, lest Cinder somehow gain the ability to read minds and see her thoughts, Emerald turned in for the night, falling asleep in her bed before Mercury could come back and irritate her further.

* * *

'Welcome back everyone!' Doctor Oobleck announced over the loudspeaker. 'The fourth round of the Vytal Festival Tournament will begin in just a few moments!'

Over the course of the previous week, the various students participating in the different rounds of the tournament. The teams rounds had taken a long time to get through, simply due to the large amount of teams still in the running at the time. It took four days just to get through the first round of the tournament, another two for the second, and all of yesterday was spent on the first doubles round, the third round of the tournament.

Weiss and Yang had managed to sneak a win in against their opponents, whilst Pyrrha and Nora had proceeded to annihilate the pair they had been set against. Sun and Neptune had been a favourite of the ladies in the crowd, but had been unfortunate enough to have Charlie and Hannah selected as their opponents. There had been a few boos in complaint when the Haven students had been eliminated by their opponents, but they had been silenced soon enough when Professor Port began announcing the next match.

'Today we will continue through the fourth round of the tournament, cutting through the quarter-finals, and by the end of today, we will be left with four competitors remaining. They will be our finalists for the tournament, and will compete against each other for the honour of being the victor of the 80th Vytal Festival Tournament!'

'Yes Peter!' Doctor Oobleck said, his voice barely audible above the sound of the cheers beginning anew from the audience. 'But instead of boring our audience with small talk and going over the rules once again, let's begin the randomisation process for our first match!'

As per usual, as soon as the Doctor and the Professor were done commenting, the holographic displays around the arena flashed to life, already spinning through the remaining combatants to see who would be fighting against one another in the next battle. The images came to a rest on Yang and Weiss, as well as a pair of boys that they weren't familiar with.

The pair made their way to the stage as per the norm at this point, meeting with their opponents on the stage after preparing in the locker room before the match. The first was a rugged looking, white-haired student with thick stubble of the same colour coating his face and chin. A pair of thick glasses rested on his face, the rims made of what looked like pure gold. An elegantly designed blue military coat with intricate designs in gold stitch rested on his shoulders, a tidy white shirt lying beneath, whilst a bullet belt was slung over the top, bullets larger than even those used in Crescent Rose hooked through the various loops. Hanging from his shoulder was a rustic, but intricate looking rifle. The base appeared to be created with some form of wood, but the gold inlay designs throughout the weapon gave it a sense of elegance at the same time.

His partner, a dark-haired boy of similar height, stood by his side quietly, pitch black eyes roaming across Weiss and Yang, no doubt observing them quickly for any information he could glean about them which could help him in the battle. Unlike his partner, he was clean shaven, hair long and straight in comparison to his partners short and messy bob. He wore black clothing, bits and pieces of leathers and small metal plates of the same colour covering his outfit, giving him protection across nearly his entire body. The leathers sat across sections of his body which would need more movement, whilst the plating was placed across sections of importance. To finish off his almost gothic appearance, what appeared to be a thick black cloak made of dark feathers hung from his shoulders.

'Weiss and Yang of Beacon, versus Jaye and Brendan of Atlas!' Professor Port announced over the speaker, the four students readying their weapons as their battle drew closer.

'Good luck you two,' the white-haired boy, Jaye, acknowledged, drawing his rifle from his shoulder just a second later.

'Same goes to you pal,' Yang replied, cracking her knuckles before deploying Ember Celica, settling into her battle pose.

'We make our own luck,' Brendan replied, drawing a pair of daggers from his sides, similar in design to those that Charlie wielded, but the blades were much thinner, and the pitch-black metal had a distinct lack of any red glow from within. He gave them a quick spin in his hands, balancing them on his fingers before nodding in satisfaction, sheathing them a moment later.

Around them rose the environments of their battlefield. The fire and ice environments that had been in their first fight in the tournament rose to the North and South respectively, whilst the East quadrant became a field of shattered glass, giant spires of the same transparent material protruding from the floor, whilst the West became a thick swamp, deep pools of muck littering the ground.

'Three, two, one, begin!'

Yang threw her fists forwards, hoping to get in an early hit with Ember Celica, firing rapidly at the two boys. Her shots missed as Brendan grabbed his partner, his cloak suddenly flapping to life, lifting the two from the floor. It was then that Yang realised that it wasn't a cloak at all, it was actual wings!

The raven faunus flew above the battlefield, his cargo aiming down the scope of his rifle, firing towards the two girls far more accurately than any other sharpshooter they had ever seen. The first round impacted against Yang's shoulder, the next hitting her in the gut. From there, Weiss managed to bring up a glyph between the two pairs, deflecting the next two shots that were fired.

The pair dashed through the sky, dropping low as Brendan dropped Jaye beside one of the glass spires. Whilst it wouldn't do much to hide him from Weiss and Yang, it was likely still a viable source of cover from any long-range attacks. Brendan took to the skies again, his wings rapidly flapping behind him, darting across the arena towards the two girls.

Weiss shifted the position of her glyph, keeping it between them and the airborne student. Just before he would impact with it, he flared his wings behind him, coming to a halt in barely a second. His wingspan was easily in the range of twenty feet, the vast black wings almost blocking out all the light in front of them as they spread before them. Flapping them downwards, Brendan shot upwards, drawing both of his daggers in one swift motion before dashing down again, barely flitting over the top of Weiss' glyph. Impacting with the ground hard, he dodged Yang's first punch before unleashing a flurry of strikes against the two. It was almost like fighting Charlie, his technique incredibly similar to their friends, although in the place of teleporting out of danger, he would either dodge an attack at the last second, or raise one of his giant black wings, catching their attack with little effort.

A shot bounced beneath Weiss' glyph, ricocheting off the metal floor and into Weiss' shin. She stumbled on the spot, her glyph dropping as her concentration fell, another round impacting against her chest, this one sending her backwards and onto the floor.

Brendan dodged Yang's next uppercut, rolling to the side and flaring his wings outwards, one of them catching her side and sending her sprawling across the floor. Weiss leapt to her feet, turning to help Yang, instead taking another shot to the leg. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she instead turned her gaze to her other opponent, currently loading another bullet into the chamber of his rifle.

Summoning a glyph beneath her, Weiss shot across the field of battle, gliding over the sharp glass that littered the area Jaye had in lockdown. Dodging his next shot, she stabbed Myrtenaster towards him, the tip of her rapier barely glancing off the side of his rifle. Spinning it in his hand, the rifle shifted into a longsword of similar design. Elegant beyond normal measures, it made even Myrtenaster look slightly tacky.

Raising her guard, the two began trading blows, Weiss being more on the defensive whilst Jaye was on the offense, sending strike after strike her way as he attempted to break through her guard. Their blades clashed together, both of them entwined in an elegant display of swordplay. The older student slowly began to push Weiss back, her heeled shoes making it slightly difficult for her to walk on the uneven terrain of the glass.

Subtly flicking her wrist, Weiss set up a glyph behind her, deflecting another strike from Jaye before leaping backwards, planting her feet on the glyph. Pushing off from the surface, Weiss pointed her rapier before her towards her opponent. As he dodged to the side, she dropped the tip of Myrtenaster to the floor, the ice dust cartridge in her hilt activating, ice sprouting across the ground.

Jaye stumbled backwards, avoiding the spikes of ice, boots crunching against the glass covered ground. Creating more glyphs, Weiss started darting around her opponent, slashing Myrtenaster towards her opponent. He managed to block a few of her strikes, but most of them were too quick for him to deflect or parry.

Explosions rocketed behind her, the blasts of Ember Celica echoing throughout the stadium as Yang fired her gauntlets after her airborne opponent. The raven-faunus flitted through the air, giant wings propelling him through the sky above Yang. The brawler was growling angrily, frustrated at her inability to hit him.

Seeing an opening, Brendan dove towards the blond girl, daggers flashing in the light as he swung them towards her. Yang deflected them with the backs of her gauntlets, the pair exchanging blows with each other, alternating between attacking and countering each other. Although his blades were easy to counter, his fighting style being similar enough to Charlie's that she could almost predict some of his attacks, the giant wings across his back were much more difficult to avoid. One well-placed strike with a wing was enough to knock Yang off her feet.

As she rolled across the ground from one such hit, she blasted Ember Celica behind herself, darting back towards Brendan as he lifted himself into the air again. Another shot of Ember Celica and she reached him, grabbing hold of one of his wings, her weight enough to drag it down. Unbalanced, he struggled to stay airborne with his one free wing, but her added weight on his other wing dragged them back to the floor of the arena.

As soon as they landed, Yang threw all of her weight towards Brendan, dragging the two of them to the ground. He raised his arms to protect himself as she straddled him, throwing punch after punch at his face. Unable to move, the strength of her blows were finally put to use, striking against his chest and face whenever he was unable to deflect them with his forearms.

Jaye and Weiss were still locked in battle when this happened, blades flashing around each other as they sought for the next strike against their opponent. Looking behind him at his teammate, Jaye dropped to the ground, swiping at Weiss' legs to make her jump away from him. Using this window of opportunity, he shifted his weapon into a rifle, taking aim and firing a shot towards Yang, the round exploding against her face, knocking her off his partner. Rolling onto his back, Jaye flicked Weiss' next strike to the side before rolling to his feet, shards of glass sent flying off his coat.

The biggest advantage that Weiss had over Jaye in close quarters combat was his inability to use his rifle. Although it was incredibly powerful, he seemed reluctant to use it too close to her. She supposed that unlike Pyrrha, who used her own rifle in any situation, the scope that he had attached to the top of the barrel had an extremely powerful magnification within, making it difficult to use up close. This limited him to fighting her with just his blade, which he seemed slightly less proficient with in comparison to his incredible marksmanship.

Pressing on the offensive now, Weiss couldn't help but smile as she slowly pushed him back, sneaking in a few strikes past his defences every now and then. She flicked Myrtenaster across the ground, the revolving barrel spinning in place as some pieces of glass were lifted from the ground. Bringing Myrtenaster around, she activated the dust chamber, a burst of wind emanating from the tip of her rapier, sending the glass shards towards Jaye.

He lifted the side of his coat to protect himself from the small projectiles, but in doing so, blinded himself from Weiss' next attack. A quick thrust with Myrtenaster to the centre of the chest, accompanied with a quick flurry of slashes was enough to drop his aura enough to eliminate him from the match.

Spinning on the spot, Weiss searched for Yang and Brendan. After Jaye's shot, the winged-faunus had darted back into the sky, throwing his daggers towards Yang to keep her on the defensive, rather than shooting him down. Each time they finally landed, they evaporated into a puff of shadows, darting back to his hands in an instant.

Flourishing her rapier, Weiss summoned several shards of ice, flinging them towards the flying opponent with a thrust of Myrtenaster. The first few hit the back of his wings, shattering against his dark feathers, whilst he managed to deflect the rest with his daggers. Continuing her onslaught, Weiss managed to distract him enough for Yang to begin firing at him once again. Brendan seemed to pick up on this tactic before Yang did, flapping around the sky to avoid her shots.

Unfortunately, Yang's rapid firing in random spots ended that plan quickly, one connecting with a wing, pushing him off balance before dropping a few feet. Yang kept up the pressure, firing round after round his way, dropping him lower and lower before he toppled from the air, landing with a loud splash in one of the murky pools of water in the swamp.

As he spluttered to the surface, wet wings flapping uselessly in the pool of water, Weiss flourished her weapon once again, glyph forming beneath her as she shot towards him, flanking from the other side of him from Yang. Speeding over the boggy swamp beneath her, unhindered due to her glyph, Weiss summoned a black glyph between him and Yang. Flicking her hand, she caused another to appear at the surface of the water, expelling him from the muck and into the air.

Reaching his position, she ran into a flying kick, pushing him through the black glyph, speeding him up and sending him flying towards her awaiting teammate, fist readied with a grin on her face. Jabbing with Ember Celica, firing a round from her gauntlet simultaneously with her punch, she caught the student in the gut with her blow, knocking him back to the ground, the buzzer sounding through the stadium as his own aura was dropped enough to eliminate him from the match.

'Yang Xiao-Long and Weiss Schnee win!' Professor Oobleck called out, the crowd roaring in approval of the battle.

The pair smiled, waving at the audience as they made their way towards each other. Yang held her arms out for a hug, which Weiss was almost tempted to return, instead rewarding her with a high-five instead. Baby steps.

* * *

'That was amazing!' Ruby squealed, almost knocking the pair over before they could even reach their seats. Her short little arms wrapped around each of them simultaneously, drawing them in for one of the famous Xiao-Long-Rose hugs. Whilst Weiss merely protested in irritation, the brute that was Yang Xiao-Long joined in, wrapping her arms around her little sister as well as Weiss, crushing the two in an even stronger grip.

'Aw, thanks sis!' Yang laughed, Ruby already struggling in her grasp, getting far more than she had been looking for.

'Please let me go,' Weiss mumbled through the cloth covering Ruby's shoulder, trapped in the mess of bodies that was their odd embrace.

'Even tighter? Sure thing Weiss!' Yang teased, crushing Weiss even further.

'Congratulations!' they heard Pyrrha say. Finally releasing each other from their nearly team hug, the three separated, turning to face the rest of their friends.

'That was an awesome fight!' Jaune praised. 'I didn't even realise he was a faunus! He's been hiding that secret since the start of the tournament!'

'Really?'

'Yeah! I've been watching all of the matches so far, and he hasn't actually used his wings until your match right now!' Jaune said excitedly.

'Well, it's good to see that they thought we would be difficult enough to warrant him using them,' Weiss said, a slight hint of satisfaction in her voice.

'Pfft, of course he did!' Yang smiled. 'We're badass! He would have known he'd need to go all out just to take me down!'

'And there's that humble Yang that we all know and love,' Blake smirked.

'You all know and love me anyway,' Yang winked in response.

'You know, I did a lot of the work this time Yang,' Weiss snapped at her teammate, who rolled her eyes in amusement.

'Right, of course. Thank you, Weiss, I am forever in your debt for throwing some water around the arena,' Yang chuckled, only causing Weiss to become more infuriated.

'Yang!'

'It's alright Weiss, we know you were the real MVP this round,' Charlie commented as he walked up to congratulate them himself, smiling as Yang took on a look of emotional pain.

'I thought you were on my side!' Yang complained dramatically, before adopting her usual grin. 'Oh wait, nope, you're on Weiss' aren't you? I see how it is.'

'Yang, for the last time-!'

'Don't worry Weiss, as soon as you send out the wedding invitations, I'll be sure to RSVP my spot,' Yang teased.

'Baby steps Yang,' Charlie replied. 'I was thinking that we should all head out into Vale tonight. Have a celebration dinner tonight. Somewhere nice, my treat. Well, maybe Robyn's treat. We'll see.'

'Little bit early for that sort of talk, don't you think? Only we've won our battle so far. You and Hannah, or gods forbid, Nora and Pyrrha could still lose,' Yang commented.

'Well, even if we do lose, we can still go out and celebrate you guys getting through to the finals,' Charlie reasoned.

'That sounds like a grand idea!' Pyrrha said, nodding happily at his suggestion. 'I'd love to actually spend a night out with all of us together. We haven't really done anything like that since the start of the year.'

'Great! I'll go and ask Sun if him and his team want to come out with us as well.'

'Good idea, break the ice between you and him after you destroyed him and Neptune in the third round,' Yang said, narrowing her eyes and sticking her finger into his chest. 'Which I still haven't forgiven you for!'

'They didn't get destroyed Yang,' Blake said defensively. 'They held their own.'

'Oh please! They got destroyed and you know it!'

'Regardless of who got destroyed or not!' Charlie interrupted before the conversation could degrade any further. 'I'm going to invite them out with us. Is that fine with you all?'

He received quick nods from the six people around him, each of them perfectly fine with Team Sun to join them. 'Great, it's a date then.'

'Oh, are you sure about that Charlie?' Yang asked, drawing confusion from the rest of the group before her usual grin crossed her face. 'Don't you want to take Weiss out somewhere special, alone, for your first date?'

'Yang!' Weiss yelled at her teammate angrily, drawing out laughs from the rest of their friends.

* * *

Mercury paced anxiously in the locker room below the stands of the coliseum. Their rigged match with Charles Arduin, and his battle partner, Hannah Kitsun, had been announced only moments before. Cinder may have had faith in the two of them to defeat the pair, but Mercury had his own doubts. He knew he was good, but Charles was on a different level from himself and Emerald. Similar to Pyrrha Nikos, the two had an uncanny knack for combat, their semblances boosting their prowess in battle even further.

If the battle between Charles and Pyrrha a few weeks back was an indication of anything, it was that he wouldn't require much of an opening to take either of them out. One slip-up, and he could take the victory from them. That would throw their plan in disarray, not to mention how angry Cinder would be as well.

Emerald had asked why they didn't just pit Charles and Pyrrha against each other earlier on, have one take the other out, an idea which was quickly shot down. Cinder wanted Pyrrha to reach the finals, throwing Charles in the way would only complicate matters. They couldn't be certain that Pyrrha wouldn't lose to the boy, and due to the unknown factor around him at that time, they didn't want to risk him ruining their plan just because they didn't know much about him.

His semblance for example, if Cinder's theory was correct, which it always was, would have made their attempts to trick contestants into enacting violent actions in the finals pointless, as he could choose to ignore it instead, knowing that it was nothing more than an illusion. To be honest, Mercury could tell that Emerald was nervous about having to use her illusory semblance so much just to take him out. It was their trump card, vital to their plan. It wouldn't do well for him to make the connection between their plans and what would be happening to him in this fight.

Of course, that wouldn't matter if Mercury and Emerald lost this battle…

Subtlety was key here. Emerald had to be extremely careful with how she used her semblance today. Too obvious of a change, and Charles would likely pick up on their trickery. Mercury wasn't sure how their opponent would react to it, but it would probably just make him more dangerous if he knew that they could manipulate what he saw.

As the countdown timer throughout the whole stadium came close to zero, they made their way out onto the arena floor. Loud cheering boomed through the stadium as usual, the crowd excited to see the two pairs fight one another. Mercury never understood these tournaments. The way he had been raised, you fought either to survive, or to kill. This was nothing more than entertainment, sport to these people.

Walking onto the stage, Charles and Hannah were already standing in the centre of the arena, patiently waiting for their arrival. Taking their places opposite their foes, they began staring each other down. Just because Mercury had been trying to get friendly with their team over the last few weeks, it didn't mean that they were going to go easy on them.

There was no pre-fight banter this time around. Mercury and Emerald were too nervous as it were to try and break the silence between the four of them with any witty jokes or comments, whilst the other two were likely trying to stay focused. Although they were silent towards Emerald and Mercury, he could see the slight movements of Charlie's mouth, no doubt feeding her instructions. Her faunus hearing only made it easier for him to talk to her, no doubt barely speaking at a whisper, and yet his words would be perfectly clear to her.

It was a constant factor in all of their matches. They never participated in taunting before the match, as their leader would have no doubt been directing them before the match began. It was a good strategy really, keep information fresh in their mind, and stopping them from losing their focus because of something as simple as wordplay.

Mercury didn't even bother to look at the environments being formed around them. He and Emerald had spent a few hours with Cinder the previous night planning out all of the best environments that they could use for their battle. The odd floating blue blocks were to Mercury's left, whilst the thick savannah fields and forest Emerald had used in their previous match were back, this time behind the girl and to her right. The dense environments would be good for her to hide within. Behind their opponents was the simple beach area. If things went poorly, it was unlikely that Charles could start a fire if he was in water. That was Mercury's hope at least.

'Begin!'

Emerald darted back into the grass, like they had done before, but no doubt Charles had been expecting this, likely having watched their previous match and predicting her movements beforehand. Leaping onto Hannah's sword, she pitched him forwards, the swordsman hurtling through the air. Blades drawn, he spun them to life, flames licking across them as he passed above Mercury. Slashing outwards with the blades, he cut large grooves out of the long grass, a wave of flames rolling across the rest, setting it alight.

Mercury could only hope that Emerald had managed to get into the forest quickly, having to turn his gaze to Hannah as she charged him. She was similar to Yatsuhashi, whom he had fought in their previous battle, although she seemed much quicker with her blows, and her ability to phase through his attacks was slightly irritating as well. His usual moves wouldn't cut it here, as she made sure to activate her semblance whenever she made an attack which would leave her open for a counter in any way possible. No doubt another one of Charles' many instructions.

Shit. Charles.

Spinning on the spot, Mercury deflected a strike with a boot, ducking beneath Hannah's massive blade from behind. Placing a hand on the ground, he brought his other foot up in Charles' direction, growling when he didn't feel it connect with his opponent. Spinning out of the way, he turned back to face the two students, preparing himself for the next onslaught.

Hannah he could dodge easily, her slower attacks too easy for him to predict, moving out of their way before they could reach her. Charles on the other hand was much faster, and Mercury had to focus most of his attention on his attacks, deflecting blows with his greaves before they could reach him. They took up a tactic very quickly where Charles would attack where Mercury was heading to avoid Hannah's strikes, making it very difficult for the grey-haired assassin to avoid both of them at once.

He determined quickly that there was no way Charles was predicting his movements, half of the time he was beginning his strike before Hannah was. Unless she was thinking of how to force him to move into Charles' blades, there was no doubt that Cinder's guess must have been correct at this point.

If Emerald couldn't get Hannah away from him though, things would go badly quickly. He was certain that he could hold off Charles for a few minutes at the very least, but with his teammate fighting alongside him, Mercury doubted he would last very long against the two of them. Had they been banking on them trying the same strategy? Were they that confident in their capabilities that they weren't bothered with Emerald taking off, certain they could take him out?

Several moments later, Mercury saw the telltale glint of Emerald's weapon snaking out from the treeline, heading straight for Hannah. He tried to keep his face steady, desperate to not give up anything that might give them a hint towards Emerald's actions.

'Switch!' Charles shouted, turning on the spot and twirling through Hannah's body. He raised his blades before his body, catching Emerald's weapon around his swords before bringing a leg over the chain linking it to Emerald and dragging it to the ground. Hannah on the other hand darted forwards again, swinging her blade towards Mercury in quick motions. Similar to before, he couldn't land a hit on her as she would activate her semblance almost instantly after striking, prepared for any possible counters he might give out.

Dammit, they were expecting them to do the same thing. Mercury scowled at their foiled plan, thinking about how they could resolve this situation they had found themselves in. Charles was already disappearing a puff of black energy, no doubt heading straight for Emerald. With how careful Hannah was playing this match, there was no way Mercury could defeat her without Emerald's assistance.

Kicking off from the ground with assistance from his boots, Mercury kicked himself backwards onto one of the various blue platforms behind him. As he landed, he noticed Hannah seemed to lose interest in him, darting back towards Emerald instead.

Cursing quietly, he roundhouse kicked a shot towards his teammate to grab her attention. It didn't hit her, but landed close enough for her to glance up at him, hopefully spotting his gesture for her to join him. After a few seconds of calling her with a hand signal, he went back to firing a few rounds from the sole of his boots at Charles and Hannah. It wasn't enough to do damage to them, Hannah managing to phase through most of them that came too close, and Charles dodging away from those near him without fail.

Taking the opportunity, Emerald disengaged from them, sprinting towards Mercury. She threw her weapon towards him, which he deftly caught out of the air. Wrapping the chain around his arm, he pulled violently, lifting her from the ground and dragging her up to him.

'What's the new plan?' she asked, slightly out of breath already.

'Fake the platform movements,' Mercury replied. 'Try to get them to separate. Focus on the girl, if she falls and gets distracted I should be able to take her out.'

Emerald nodded, narrowing her eyes as she focused on the fox faunus. Mercury didn't know how she was going to make this work, instead settling into a combat pose as the two charged towards them. Hannah flung Charles up towards them once again, blades spinning wildly as he reached the pair. The three exchanged blows with one another, Mercury trying to tank most of the hits whilst Emerald kept her concentration.

Mercury spotted Hannah leaping between the moving platforms below them, attempting to reach them from below. She took a leap into nothing but empty space a few moments later. Praying that he could take her out quickly, Mercury tapped Emerald on the shoulder, barely noticing as she focused more intensely on Charlie.

Leaping from the side of the platform, Charlie didn't even swipe at him as he dove over the edge. Firing his boots for extra speed, he brought his leg down in an overhead sweep, bringing the heel of his foot into the small of Hannah's back, letting loose another shot as his kick connected. She bounced off the platform beneath her, back up into both of his boots as he landed atop her, driving her into the floor.

He leapt away as she swung her blade towards him, causing him to leap away. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Emerald barely managing to hold Charlie back, struggling to keep his attention on her. No doubt the swordsman wanted to make his way down towards his teammate, not wanting to split the two of them up. Team Chrome had only split up during the first match, the likely reason for why they didn't do so since being that their first match was the closest battle they had experienced throughout the entire tournament. They were strong together, and although they were strong individually, it was too risky in the long run.

Mercury dove to the ground beneath Hannah's next swing, firing a shot towards her from the ground, which she phased through just like every other strike he had attempted to land on her so far. She was too consistent with how she would activate her semblance after each strike, he could never get a hit in now, let alone if she were on the defence.

Mercury's eyes flashed as an idea came to him. He rolled to his feet, beginning to fire shot after shot at his opponent. None of them connected, however this wasn't his intention. He continued to fire them towards her, letting them encircle the pair after their initial momentum. As she advanced on him again, Mercury fell back into a defensive position, trying to get a feel for the timing of her strikes.

Once confident enough, Mercury began willing the shots to come back towards Hannah's form, only coming in for a hit when she was striking, so she couldn't phase through them. It took her a few seconds to adjust to his tactic, relenting on her strikes to instead defend herself from his shots.

He kicked out at her every now and then, alternating his attacks between physical attacks and the shots floating around the pair. Although after the initial shots she took far less hits, the mixture between his attempts of attack were able to break through her guard every now and then. Possibly she couldn't keep her semblance going for too long? It would explain how he was still managing to land hits on her. If she could keep it going, she could just allow everything to pass through her form.

It would take too long however, and after glimpsing towards the scoreboards around the arena, he knew that Emerald didn't have that kind of time left. Charles had already drained her of more aura than the rest of them had combined. He needed to be bolder if he wanted to prevent her from being eliminated.

Unleashing a flurry of kicks in her direction, Mercury purposefully left himself open for an attack, betting that she wouldn't pass up on such an opportunity. As he heard her sword swinging towards him, he willed the rest of his shots to race towards her. Feeling the blade slash across his back, he fell to the floor just as the rest of the shots rained down around him.

A buzzer rang through the arena, and as he glanced up through the white smoke around him, he saw that he had taken her out. His own aura had taken a significant hit, although it wasn't too bad as he had only suffered damage from the radius of the explosions. Charles' aura was well above his and Emerald's combined, but with her semblance they should be able to take him out.

Spinning on the spot, he searched the rest of the platforms for their positions. He caught sight of them a few blocks above himself, Emerald trying to run away from the swordsman. She must have been using her semblance frequently, as she would leap away from him onto another platform, whilst he would leap into empty air, swinging wildly at nothing.

Blasting off from the platform, Mercury darted straight for Charles, swinging his foot in a wide arc to land a blow against his side. The student whipped around impossibly quickly, catching the boot on his blade before slashing out with his other. Within a few seconds he had Mercury on the defensive, backing away from him as his onslaught of attacks ensued.

At some point, Emerald leapt down beside him, and with the knowledge that it was a two on one fight now, they began returning their own attacks in kind. Although most of them never made it past Charles' guard, Mercury couldn't help but notice that every now and then, their opponent would move his blade slightly too far to the side, just missing their weapons for a block.

Slowly, but surely, they managed to whittle down his aura. Emerald danced around the platform they stood on, twin curved blades clashing against Charles', whilst Mercury unleashed flurries of kicks which Charles' had no option but to dodge. Their strong offense was their saving grace, no doubt keeping Charles' under enough pressure that he couldn't move to a more advantageous position.

No doubt another sign of Cinder's correct theory. The way she described his teleportation, was that if he couldn't get somewhere through normal means, there was no way he could get there at all. His current inability to teleport out of combat definitely solidified her claims.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't putting up a good fight of course. For few strikes either he or Emerald could land against him, he was landing an equal amount of slashes against one of them. Mercury tried to move between most of the ones aimed towards Emerald, not just because she was already suffering in aura level, but because without her semblance, there was no way he would defeat Charles.

Their skirmish no doubt lasted for another few minutes before the final blow was struck. A swift slash from Emerald towards his knee, quickly followed by a roundhouse kick to the head was enough to knock Charles over, the buzzer sounding as his aura was depleted enough to allow his elimination.

It had been incredibly close in the end. Another few strikes against each of them, and both Emerald and Mercury would have been taken out of the battle as well. In the end though, it didn't matter. They had won. And now, there was nothing standing in their way.


End file.
